Portobello Road: Lives of a Neighbourhood

by Julian Mash

Portobello Road is London’s most iconic street and a unique place to live and visit. Despite the waves of gentrification, soaring rents and the recent arrival of High Street chains, its Bohemian, anarchic, creative spirit still survives. Julian Mash, a former bookseller at the famous Travel Bookshop, meets the traders and shopkeepers, film-makers and fashionistas, punks, promoters and poets who make Portobello what it is. From his encounters with famous residents like Damon Albarn and life-long market traders like Peter Cain there emerges a vivid and sometimes surprising picture of one of Britain’s most famous neighbourhoods.

This fascinatingly illustrated book explores how Portobello Road has been at the centre of trends as diverse as racial integration, health food, vintage fashion, the property boom and the life and death of record shops.

Genres: London, Nonfiction

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Meg - A Bookish Affair · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Portobello Road" is a travelogue that brings to life the sights and sounds of London's Portobello Road area. After reading this book, I know that this is an area that I would absolutely love to visit the next time I happen to be in London. This is a great collection of stories about the people and places that make up this vibrant neighborhood!

I love to travel and when I can't travel, books are definitely one of the best ways to visit a new place without leaving my favorite chair. Hurray for armchair traveling and hurray for travel writing! This book doesn't only give you a good sense of place but it gives you a good sense of people too. Mash spent many, many hours interviewing a lot of people that live and work on Portobello Road. He didn't just interview them about the place but also about some of their life stories. The care that he took in curating the interviews is definitely apparent in this book. I loved some of these stories.

The book is broken into different stories. Some of the stories cover various places along Portobello Road. Some of them cover the merchants that have made their living along the road. One of my favorite stories involves the little bookstore on Portobello Road (I know, so typical Meg). The bookstore, which is now called the Notting Hill Bookstore, was the inspiration for the adorable bookstore in the romantic comedy "Notting Hill" (ah yes, I love that movie).

Are you looking to do some good armchair traveling? Pick up this book and get to know the people and places of "Portobello Road!"

[Esther · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a discovered gem. Picked this up on clearance in a local bookstore for next to nothing. It is one of the best things I've read in ages. I lived in this area of London back in the late 90s and retain a lot of affection for it. This book tracks its history - and more widely of Notting Hill. Tales of buildings, immigrants, musicians, market traders, squats, the evolution of the NH festival and so many great characters. Of course like most of London, its mainly gone to billionaires and homogenous bland affluence. Let's not mention the terrible film either. The guy who wrote this used to work in the Travel Bookshop which was featured in it (and of course went out of business as rents went up).

[Paulo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, spent a lot of time around Portobello road in the 90’s as some mates had stalls selling retro gear and records, used to love popping in to most of the pubs mentioned and just soaking it all up, something so exciting about a Saturday on the Portobello Road, this books captures that through some great interviews with propers characters. Wholly recommended.

[Samantha Uptmor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book is kind of like when you finish a bottle of shampoo and a bottle of conditioner at the same time; it’s one of those things that doesn’t happen often but when it does you have to sit there and think to yourself, boy am I lucky that happened to ME. The amount of blue tabs that are peaking out from in between my pages could give the number of tourists pouring out of Notting Hill Gate a run for their money. Through every interview the imagery was as vivid as it was capturing, as long as my book was open I could be found anywhere from a recording studio to a dentist office (and you better believe anywhere in between).

This scratched an itch; was that itch potentially caused by needing a trip back to this magical place? That is quite possible, but I digress. The author very seamlessly embeds media into the text by mentioning films, music, and events, all while maintaining the narrative that Portobello Road is (and always will be) the heart of the community. Believe it or not I even found a connection between this community and my own (who doesn’t love a good White Stripes moment??). You get more than you bargain for with this one, in all the best ways. Whatever happens to the Portobello Road neighbourhood, I think it’s beautiful that so much of its life and spirit have been so well preserved in this book. Julian Mash, this is a love letter I feel grateful to have read.

[Jeff Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

In nearly 20 years of living in London, I reckon I've only visited Notting Hill/Portobello Road less than half a dozen times. That being said its held a bit of a fascination for me, partly due to it turning up in early Van Morrison songs, partly because of The Clash, Blur, the film Performance and the film Notting Hill itself. Just the names of the places have an almost mystical resonance. This book is made up of a series of interviews with people who live, work or are associated with the area...some famous (like Damon Albon) most aren't...The author is attempting to capture the spirit & romance of the place before it disappears under the weight of gentrification. Broadly he succeeds, he certainly captures the bohemian spirit - almost makes we wish I could afford to live there. Perhaps the next best thing is a weekend visit to the market...which I promise to do soon.

[Silvia Agostini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly interesting book!

Knowing London very little, I found this book in the small bookshop shot in the Notting Hill's movie. The writer clearly loves the area and make you love it too, telling you all its history and many stories from the people who live there.

I have always believed Notting Hill to be a very posh area of London, ideas based on what I have seen in the movie. I was very surprised to discover that it used to be a rough area, famous for being rich of immigration and poverty.

Absolutely a book to be read, in order to go against many pregiudices and really understand what has ans is happening to this big City.

[Marlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anyone who's been to the Portobello Market in London will be interested in the back story about the area. The author interviewed lots of people who lived and worked in the area over the years - stall owners, artists, writers, West Indian residents, rock musicians and activists. A fascinating view of an area and it's inhabitants.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I expected or hoped for based on the description, but still pretty good. More of a portrait of the history of Portobello road, with a lot of focus on the 1970s. I ended up skimming some of the rock interviews, but the Rhys Ifans section was the perfect way to end the book.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I expected or hoped for based on the description, but still pretty good. More of a portrait of the history of Portobello road, with a lot of focus on the 1970s. I ended up skimming some of the rock interviews, but the Rhys Ifans section was the perfect way to end the book.

[Jaslyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book walks up to the front doors of hairy issues like poverty, social justice, and gentrification, only to take the easy route out: cloying, fanboying nostalgia. It is essentially a curio cabinet stocked with Portobello Road figurines.