Remember that clicking on the small photos in the tour will reveal bigger and sometimes different views (+/- 24kb .JPG files). The map now shows a larger area with more detail and you will see that the tour now extends north as far as Golborne Road. To further whet your appetite for a visit to Portobello, you can view a very brief video taken while walking through the Saturday crowds - although only 9 seconds long, it still weighs in at a massive 475kb .MOV file (with sound) so it will probably appeal to the more intrepid Web walkers amongst you! (The video runs at about twice the size of this image.)

This Portobello experience will develop over the coming months and beyond...meanwhile you can take a virtual stroll down the roads marked in yellow on the map below and look forward to more places to see, more local information and exciting events to come.

Introduction to Portobello Market...
Guidelines for your journey and using the map...
New: The story of Mary Donaldson by Lawna Tapper
Of Saints and Sinners by Andrew Duncan
Notting Hill Carnival, 1995
Yaa Asantewaa Arts and Community Centre

Introduction

Portobello Road was originally a track leading to a farm called Porto Bello Farm (in allusion to Admiral Vernon's capture from the Spanish in 1739 of Porto Bello, in the Gulf of Mexico). There were also pottery kilns in the area and the Hippodrome horse-racing course which attracted some of the first traders to the area - gypsies dealing in horses and herbs. By the end of the 1800s a long running battle over the extent of the market had begun between the authorities, street-traders and shop-keepers. In 1929 the first licence was officially granted. In 1948, after the closure of the Caledonian Market, antique dealers came here in large numbers followed by bargain hunters.

Portobello is really several markets in one, Saturday being the day when all are in full swing. Then you can experience a mile of hustle, haggle, colour and energy. The feature of Saturdays is the opening of hundreds of antique and specialist shops and stalls. You will also find clothes, household items, junk, records and more. There are some talented and bizarre street performers to be spotted too. (You will now find some brief recordings of some of the street musicians scattered through the tour.)

During the week Portobello is the domain of the fruit and vegetable market traders, shouting the odds from their many colourful, aromatic stalls. Sundays are rather quiet with a small area under the motorway selling mainly bric-a-brac and second-hand clothes. One thing for sure about Portobello - there is something for everyone.

Carnival

Of course Portobello Road is also at the heart of the spectacular Notting Hill Carnival held each August Bank Holiday since 1966. This holiday always falls on the last weekend of August with Sunday and Monday being the major carnival days.

The party started as a local pageant and fair and has become a full-blooded Caribbean carnival attracting millions of people from all around the world. There are scores of massive 'sound systems', each with their own style DJ, many spectacular floats and steel drum bands and, to keep you well fed, there are hundreds of stalls lining the streets of the area selling all sorts of food and drink including Caribbean specialities. There are also three main outdoor stage venues with some big names performing.

Carnival fever starts picking up round about 11.00 a.m. on each of the days and in recent years activities on the street have been officially ended at about 8.00 p.m. However some stalls are still selling food until about 10.00 p.m. and you should be able to find a 'private' party or two going on through the night.

We have additional pages of Carnival information so you can find out what it's all about. You can also see a series of photographs taken during the two days. We hope you had a good time if you made it to the 1995 event.

Guidelines

NOTE: To get the best out of this tour, you should set your computer to display as many colours as possible, preferably at least 32000, so that the photographs show their 'true colours'.

You can go to the beginning of the photo journey through Portobello Market or follow the map above, picking up the route by clicking on any road intersections (crossroads). The yellow colour coding shows the extent of the map that you can access to date. This is gradually expanding. If you click on the map where the journey doesn't yet reach, you will be brought back to this section and can try again.

The top of the map points North and your journey has been laid out to start from the bottom of the map, though you could pick up the route at any point and travel North or South.

Once you are viewing the photo-journey, clicking on a small picture will access a better view of it (22k on average) and vice versa, while clicking on the direction arrows will take you, or let you see (depending on the circumstances) in each of the possible directions: north, south, east or west. Clicking on the MAP button will always bring you back to the Portobello area map.

NEW: We have added some sound clips to the tour to give a hint of the market atmosphere - to make the sounds as accessible as possible, we have kept them short and sampled them at 11khz, 8bit. This means that they are between 50kb and 90kb in size (5 to 9 seconds long).

To further whet your appetite for a visit to Portobello, you can view a very brief video taken while walking through the Saturday crowds - although only 9 seconds long, it still weighs in at a massive 475kb .MOV file (with sound) so it will probably appeal to the more intrepid Web walkers amongst you!

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Please let us know at London Calling Internet if you have found this a useful or entertaining experience, or if you have any other comments, especially if it has been of practical help on a "real" trip to the Market, by e-mailing pbello@londonci.demon.co.uk

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