Portobello Road Market
a mile of antiques and pastel houses
The world's largest antiques market, free to wander, a mile of stalls winding through pastel Notting Hill from vintage finds to street food.
Free to visit · Notting Hill · Notting Hill Gate · W11 1LU
Opening: Mon–Sat · antiques are biggest on Saturdays
Portobello Road runs for the better part of a mile through Notting Hill, past rows of those famous pastel-painted houses, and on a Saturday it becomes the largest antiques market in the world. Walking it is free, and you could spend hours just looking without buying a thing.
The market changes character as you go. The southern end by Notting Hill Gate is all antiques and bric-a-brac, silver, old cameras, prints and curiosities. Further north it shifts to fruit and veg, then vintage clothes and a brilliant run of street food under the Westway flyover.
It is touristy, yes, made more so by the Hugh Grant film, but it is also a genuine working market with real dealers and real bargains if you dig. A free, colourful and gloriously chaotic London morning.
Getting there: A few minutes downhill from Notting Hill Gate, or up from Ladbroke Grove for the food and vintage end of the street.
Best time to go: Saturday for the full antiques market in flow, but get there before 10am if you want to move, because by noon it is shoulder to shoulder.
Insider tip: Go early on a Saturday for the antiques, then walk all the way north under the Westway for the vintage stalls and street food, which most antiques hunters never reach. Weekday mornings are calmer if you just want the street and the houses without the crush.
Official site: https://www.portobelloroad.co.uk
Free things to do in London · London Free Guide