Colourful Houses in Notting Hill: A Sunday Walk from Portobello Road

The Sun in Splendour glowed yellow on its rounded corner when I set off on a Sunday in mid-June. A red shopfront next door, trees in full leaf, people drifting past in both directions. That corner, where Pembridge Road meets Portobello Road, is where I started a slow walk north-west to see the colourful houses in Notting Hill.

The whole walk took about 45 minutes. I stopped for pink doors, pastel bay windows and two red cars. That is the route, photo by photo, with the story of why these streets look the way they do. For a wider list, my guide to London's prettiest streets covers Lancaster Road, St Luke's Mews, Lansdowne Road and Elgin Crescent. I've kept those off this route on purpose.

Where Are the Colourful Houses in Notting Hill?

Most of them sit north of Notting Hill Gate, on the stucco terraces either side of Portobello Road. My route stayed mostly on the east side. It went up Portobello Road, turned into Lonsdale Road, then wound through Colville Square and Talbot Road to Westbourne Park Road. That is roughly 1.3 km, detours included.

The pub is a good place to begin. CAMRA dates the Sun in Splendour to 1852. Its name comes from the badge of the Yorkist king Edward IV. A model sun with rays once sat on the roof, until a storm destroyed it around the turn of the 20th century.

Portobello Road started life as a country lane. It ran from Notting Hill Gate to Portobello Farm, named after Puerto Bello in Panama, which Admiral Vernon captured from Spain in 1739. The lane marked the eastern edge of the Ladbroke family's land. Building along it began in the late 1840s and crept north from the Notting Hill Gate end. That is the same direction I walked.

Is Portobello Road Market Open on a Sunday?

Ten minutes later I was outside a blue-painted house with a shop on the ground floor. A red classic sports car was parked in front with its roof down. There were stalls along the kerb and shoppers weaving between them. Busy, but nothing like a Saturday crush.

Saturday is the big day. According to the market's own Visit Portobello site, the antiques arcades trade on Saturdays only, most from about 7am until 4pm. On Fridays, the antiques, fashion and household stalls come out too. From Monday to Thursday, a smaller market of fruit, vegetables and household goods runs between Elgin Crescent and the Westway.

Sundays are different. Outside summer and December, the street market does not trade on a Sunday. The council has run special Summer Sundays markets instead, with up to 30 stalls, starting in mid-June in 2021 and 2022. The Acklam Kitchen food market and the stalls near Portobello Green open on Sundays too. For the full market, go on a Saturday. For the houses, a quieter Sunday works well.

The antiques are younger than the street. The Ladbroke Association says a produce market was probably trading here by the 1860s, on Saturdays only at first. Rag-and-bone and bric-a-brac stalls appeared in the 1940s and 1950s, and the antique dealers followed. Many shops were turned into arcades in the 1960s and 1970s.

Who Built the Stucco Terraces Around Portobello Road?

Before any houses, there was a racecourse. In August 1836, a man called John Whyte leased 140 acres of Ladbroke land. He opened the Hippodrome on 3 June 1837, using the hill as a natural grandstand. St John's Church was later built on top of that hill.

It didn't last. The heavy clay left the ground waterlogged, and jockeys refused to ride on it. Locals also kept using an old public footpath that crossed the course. A report quoted in the Survey of London mocked the horses, sparing only one called Hokey Pokey. Whyte gave up the struggle in 1842.

Houses followed. In 1842 the architect James Thomson drew the first layout, with roads curving in rings around the slopes of the hill. It is often said the crescents trace the old racetrack. The Survey of London credits Thomson's plan for the curves instead. Building picked up fast through the mid-1840s, until the financial crisis of 1847 stopped it.

Next came Lonsdale Road, a side street off Portobello Road. A pale blue house had a pink front door, white steps and blue railings. Ivy had spread across much of the front.

The streets I walked through next came a little later. Between 1860 and 1875, a builder called George Frederick John Tippett put up about 250 houses on 17 acres around Colville Square, Colville Gardens and Powis Square. The Survey of London describes long stucco ranges of four to six storeys, with porches on columns. It also notes how uniform they look, which suggests Tippett designed many of them himself.

Then Colville Square. White stucco, a blue front door, and a red VW Beetle at the kerb.

Why Did Notting Hill's Grand Houses Fall Into Decline?

Tippett built for the upper middle class. By 1871 his houses held merchants, stockbrokers, lawyers and retired officers. It didn't hold. He went bankrupt in 1885, unable to let the houses, as the street market and poorer streets nearby changed the area's character.

To the west lay Notting Dale. The Survey of London describes the Potteries there, a low-lying area that grew into one of the worst slums in London. In the 20th century, fewer families kept servants, and houses this size were hard to fill as single homes. By the 1930s Powis Square was largely a slum. Bomb damage in the Second World War made things worse.

A few steps on from Colville Square, a long curving terrace came into view near the corner with Talbot Road. Blue, yellow and pink fronts ran one after another, with bay windows under a cloudy sky.

After the war, many houses here were split into flats and single rooms. Peter Rachman, a Polish-born landlord, built up more than 100 run-down properties across west London from the 1950s. He divided big houses, pushed out protected tenants and charged high rents. Many of his tenants were newly arrived West Indian families with few other options.

Rachman died in 1962. His name became notorious a year later, when the Profumo affair broke and his links to it came out. An MP coined the word Rachmanism, and the Rent Act 1965 followed.

These same streets became home to one of London's largest Black communities. In 1958 gangs attacked Black residents in Notting Hill. In January 1959 Claudia Jones held an indoor Caribbean carnival at St Pancras Town Hall. A few months later, the Antiguan Kelso Cochrane was murdered in a racist attack in Notting Hill.

In 1966, the social worker Rhaune Laslett organised an outdoor festival here. She invited Russell Henderson's steel band, and people followed the music into the street. That was the beginning of Notting Hill Carnival. By 1976 it drew more than 150,000 people, and it takes over these roads every August bank holiday weekend.

Closer up, the terrace's bays were pink, yellow and blue, each topped with a small balcony.

Why Are the Colourful Houses in Notting Hill Painted?

Stucco was never meant to be colourful. It is a thin render laid over brick to pass for stone, at a fraction of the cost. Plasterers usually lined it out to look like blocks of ashlar. According to the Regency Town House in Brighton, Regency stucco was often a much darker shade than the cream we know. That pale cream only arrived in the mid-19th century.

The same source says a stucco terrace was meant to be painted as one, with no change of colour from house to house. So a row of pink, yellow and blue houses breaks the original rule completely. Stucco is a painted finish, and every repaint gives each owner a choice. Over the decades, more and more owners chose colour.

I couldn't find a reliable date for the first pink or turquoise front around here. What is clear is that the change came with money. From the 1980s, wealthier families moved back into the big houses. Country Life reports that values rose 66% in the five years from 2000, after the film came out.

So can owners paint a house any colour they like? Often, yes. The Ladbroke Association explains that repainting doesn't usually need planning permission, even in a conservation area. The exception is a house covered by an Article 4 direction on exterior painting, which some Ladbroke houses have. Listed buildings can need consent too. The Ladbroke Association's advice is to check a building's status before starting.

On Westbourne Park Road, a bright pink house had pink pillars to match and a white door. A street sign was fixed to the wall, and spiky plants stood by the steps.

A minute later came a lime-yellow front door set inside a deep blue porch, with pillars and stone steps.

Where Is the Blue Door from the Film Notting Hill?

On the same road, as it happens. The blue door from the 1999 film belongs to a private house on Westbourne Park Road. The original door was taken out and auctioned for charity after the film's success. A plain black door replaced it for a while, before a blue one went back up.

The travel bookshop scenes were filmed in a shop on Portobello Road. The real Travel Bookshop that inspired it stood on Blenheim Crescent. It closed in 2011 and reopened at the same address as The Notting Hill Bookshop.

Somewhere along the same walk I passed a row of porches with turquoise and pink columns behind black railings.

Every one of these fronts is someone's home. Keep your voice down, stay on the pavement and keep off the steps. Don't block a doorway or a gate for a photo, and step aside when someone needs to get past. A Sunday lunchtime like mine left plenty of room to take pictures without getting in anyone's way.

The last photo from the walk shows a pale yellow and pink house with iron balconies, half hidden behind a tree.

I've walked this part of London in winter too. My New Year's Day walk in Notting Hill covers the same neighbourhood in January. From Notting Hill Gate, the Churchill Arms is a short walk south, and I wrote about its Christmas display separately.

For a Victorian house you can actually go inside, Sambourne House in Kensington keeps its original interiors.

Visiting Notting Hill: Practical Notes

📍 Where: Start at the Sun in Splendour, on the corner of Portobello Road and Pembridge Road, W11. Walk north up Portobello Road, then turn off into Lonsdale Road, Colville Square, Talbot Road and Westbourne Park Road.

📅 Open days: The streets are public every day. Portobello Road Market trades Monday to Saturday, with antiques on Saturdays. The street market runs on Sundays only in summer and December.

⏰ Opening: Market traders generally work from about 8.30 am to 6 pm. Most antiques arcades open from about 7 am to 4 pm on Saturdays. Check visitportobello.com before you go.

🎫 Admission: Free.

🚇 Getting there: Notting Hill Gate station (Central, Circle and District lines) for the start. Westbourne Park (Circle and Hammersmith & City lines) or Ladbroke Grove are closest to the finish.

🚗 Parking: Most street parking is for residents. The Tube is much easier.

☕ Food: Pubs, cafes and market food stalls line Portobello Road, starting with the Sun in Splendour itself.

⏳ How long: About 45 minutes at a slow, photo-stopping pace. Allow longer on a market day.

📷 Best time: A Sunday lunchtime in June was quiet enough for photos. Saturdays are the busiest. Avoid the Carnival weekend in late August unless you are going for the Carnival.

🗺️ Nearby: The Churchill Arms, Kensington Palace, Leighton House and Sambourne House are all a short bus or Tube ride south.

♿ Access: The pavements are mostly level but narrow in places. Portobello Road gets crowded on market days.

If the stucco were yours to repaint, which colour would you pick for your front?

_______________________

Did you enjoy this article? If you'd like to contribute to the running costs of WithinLondon, click the button below:

All photos were taken by Ina/WithinLondon, unless stated otherwise.