A blue house in Notting Hill
A sunny day in Notting Hill.
I saw several blue doors, a blue house even but not the blue door. The blue door has actually been sold for charity on an auction a couple of years ago, for £ 5000,=. And to be honest I didn’t have the address with me so I had no idea where it was supposed to be (unfortunately for the Japanese girl who asked me as she was desperately looking for it). Richard Curtis lived in the house behind the door though, but moved after the film.
I also saw (William’s / Hugh Grant’s) the Travel bookshop. Again I wasn’t looking for it, but suddenly I stood in front of it. I thought. Until I read that they actually rebuild this bookshop on Portobello Road especially for the film. So the real Travel book shop (on 13-15 Blenheim Crescent) has been the model for the film bookshop, but the film hasn’t been shot there. Weird eh?
And funny enough, I drank hot chocolate (with cream) in Coffee Republic on the corner of Westbourne Park and Portobello Road. And it was exactly there where William Thacker (Hugh Grant) bumps into Anna Scott with his orange juice. In the film. It didn’t happen today, unfortunately.
Read all about the locations for Notting Hill. Or the ones for Love Actually.
Notting Hill has posh “Post no Bills” signs, and yes I snapped one for the (photo) collection. I am now officially going to collect them.
Other cool things I saw in Notting Hill (and things that will appear in the Photoblog at some point) : some very cool wall paintings, the house of George Orwell, the office of XL records (which currently is covered by Eraser (Thom Yorks album) artwork), and some beautiful coloured doors.
Notting Hill/Portobello Road is a cosy area to walk around, especially on a spring sunny day like today. I need to do this more often, go exploring London.
Tube: Central Line, Circle Line – stop Notting Hill Gate.
It was such lovely weather today. Wandering around some bit of London you’ve never been to with a camera is a delightful way to spend such a day. I would recommend Hampstead (town and heath alike).
@Paul – I have been on the hill in Hampstead, but only a very small bit of it. But never visited the town. Might be something I need to do soon.
Hampstead stands it’s own when it comes to being a location for films by the way, the heath is featured in so many films about London, it’s nearly not original any more.
i’m an avanced photographer (well, at last i try); last christmas i spent hollidays in london and i coud discover an incredible place to photograph (notting hill, covent garden, tube, a lot of places with colors, textures, peoples…incredible) I hope to come back soon to see the colors and feel the feelings of that places and put them in my work
best regards from Minorca (Spain). Pedro Cardona
Hi there,
Great blogging. Currently reading it on my mega-phone on my morning walk towards Ladbroke Grove station.
A couple of points about the movie locations:
1) They did use exterior shots of the Travel Bookshop, but obviously pretended it was on Portobello Road
2) The coffee place used to be called the Coffee Stop. After the movie that corner (Portobello Road and Westbourne Park Road) became probably the most famous place to have coffee in London, which was irresistable to the major chains and within months Coffee Republic opened next door and Starbucks diagonally opposite. After an initial burst of interest folowing the film, poor old Coffee Stop (apparently Richard Curtis’s favourite place to get the stuff) couldn’t compete any more and had to close. Funnily enough I’m in the process of blogging about it at the moment at Notting Hill Diary. I’ll try to remember to post a link to the article when it’s finished.
3) The Blue Door – you were so close to it (except that it’s been replaced by a black one)! Cross Portobello from Coffee Republic and it’s about 2 doors down on the right. It was Richard Curtis’s front door, but in reality behind that is a courtyard leading to the house. The clever thing that they did in the movie was that when the door was opened from the inside if William’s flat you could see the actual shops that are opposite RC’s door.