Neighbourhood guide · W11
Notting Hill
Pastel terraces, communal gardens and Portobello on a Saturday.
Notting Hill has pastel terraces, communal gardens behind the houses and Portobello Road at its heart. It is lively on a Saturday and calm on a Sunday morning, which is the balance most buyers here are after.
Living in Notting Hill
Gardens behind the houses
In the 1840s the Ladbroke estate was laid out with an unusual idea: instead of a garden square in front, each group of houses would back onto a shared private garden. The result is a district of crescents and curving streets with large communal gardens hidden behind them, open only to the houses around them.
The houses are mostly white or pastel stucco, from double-fronted villas on Lansdowne Crescent to narrower terraces closer to Portobello Road. Many have direct access from the back door into the communal garden, and those houses are the most sought after.
Notting Hill is livelier than its neighbours. The Saturday antiques market on Portobello Road starts early, the Electric Cinema has shown films since 1911, and Westbourne Grove and Ledbury Road are full of small shops. In late August the Carnival takes over the streets for a weekend.
Streets we know
Four of our favourites
I
Lansdowne Crescent
Double-fronted villas on the curve, backing onto communal gardens.
II
Kensington Park Gardens
Grand stucco houses overlooking Ladbroke Square.
III
Elgin Crescent
Pastel houses with gardens behind, between the hill and Portobello Road.
IV
Portobello Road
Antiques on Saturdays, a fruit and vegetable market during the week.
On the map
Notting Hill, close up
The houses we are selling here and the places our buyers ask about first: parks, shops, stations and the odd museum.
Good to know
Before you move
Stucco balconies on a Notting Hill terrace.
Painted houses a few streets from Portobello.
For sale and sold
Homes in Notting Hill
Off market
Not everything is listed
Tell us what you are looking for in Notting Hill and we will call you before a house comes to market.
From the journal
Stories from Notting Hill
Keep exploring
Other neighbourhoods
Selling in Notting Hill?
We know who is looking here
A partner visits, walks every floor and gives you a written valuation within five working days.