NOTTING HILL

// dress: Banana Republic // bag: Fossil // sandals: New Look // 

// lipstick: Revlon Matt Balm in Complex //

I've only been to Notting Hill - the pastel-coloured district in London frequented by Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts - once before, one Saturday in the middle of my GCSE's. I went with a friend and her mum to Portobello Road Market and the streets were thronging with people out to buy knick-knacks and flowers, or to dig a bit deeper for some statement antique jewellery. If I tell you that a Notting Hill Oxfam charity shop was selling designer dresses for £500, I think that create a rather accurate idea of what this corner of London is like.

I finally went back a few weeks ago with a different friend, the lovely Hannah from Verman Photography. I was back in England for the month of May and asked Hannah to pop into London with me to visit some much-missed art galleries and museums. We finished up early and so for the rest of the afternoon decided to head over to Notting Hill as Hannah had never been I fancied going back. It was midweek and not a market day (does anyone else have to sing that song from the old Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks when I say Portobello Road?), but the quiet streets gave us the chance to have a wee amble amongst the sweetie coloured terraces. 

We shared a late lunch at Gail's Artisan Bakery - including a fantastic-looking dark chocolate cookie that we shamelessly forgot to photograph - and then we just wandered up and down streets, peeking surreptitiously through victorian bay windows and speculating on the price of flats (£1 million at least, according to Rightmove UK). We even thought we spied a genuine Banksy graffiti piece thrown in amongst all the colour - really, is there a more picturesque place in London?

Kitty xx