NOTTING HILL, THE FOSTERS SAY GOODBYE TO LONDON

Today, The Fosters and The Grandma have spent their last day in London. They are going to travel to Malta to spend some free days preparing their A2 Cambridge Exam in a peaceful environment.

Before leaving London, the family has visited William and Anna, some Grandma's old friends who lived in Notting Hill and own a bookshop. They have bought som e books to read during their staying in Malta, and met one of the most wonderful suburbs of London.

Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. 

Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and the Portobello Road Market. From around 1870, Notting Hill had an association with artists.

For much of the 20th century, the large houses were subdivided into multi-occupancy rentals. European, Caribbean (both African Caribbeans and White Caribbeans), African, Indian, Arab, Asian, South American, and other immigrants were drawn to the area in the 1950s, partly because of the cheap rents, but were exploited by slum landlords like Peter Rachman and also became the target of white Teddy Boys in the 1958 Notting Hill race riots.

By the early 21st century, after decades of gentrification, Notting Hill had gained a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive terraces of large Victorian townhouses and high-end shopping and restaurants, particularly around Westbourne Grove and Clarendon Cross.

Notting Hill is in the ceremonial county of Greater London although it was formerly a hamlet on rural land until the expansion of urban London during the 19th century.

As late as 1870, even after the hamlet had become a London suburb, Notting Hill was still popularly referred to as being in Middlesex rather than in London.

More information: Visit London

The origin of the name Notting Hill is uncertain though an early version appears in the Patent Rolls of 1356 as Knottynghull, while an 1878 text, Old and New London, reports that the name derives from a manor in Kensington called Knotting-Bernes, Knutting-Barnes, or Nutting-barns, and goes on to quote from a court record during Henry VIII's reign that the manor called Notingbarons, alias Kensington, in the parish of Paddington, was held of the Abbot of Westminster. For years, it was thought to be a link with Canute, but it is now thought likely that the Nott section of the name is derived from the Saxon personal name Cnotta, with the ing part generally accepted as coming from the Saxon for a group or settlement of people.

The area in the west around Pottery Lane was used in the early 19th century for making bricks and tiles out of the heavy clay dug in the area. The clay was shaped and fired in a series of brick and tile kilns. The only remaining 19th-century tile kiln in London is on Walmer Road. In the same area, pig farmers moved in after being forced out of the Marble Arch area. Avondale Park was created in 1892 out of a former area of pig slurry called the Ocean. This was part of a general clean-up of the area which had become known as the Potteries and Piggeries.

By the 1980s, single-occupation houses began to return to favour with families who could afford to occupy them, and because of the open spaces and stylish architecture Notting Hill is today one of London's most desirable areas. Several parts of Notting Hill are characterised by handsome stucco-fronted pillar-porched houses, often with private gardens, notably around Pembridge Place and Dawson Place and streets radiating from the southern part of Ladbroke Grove, many of which lead onto substantial communal gardens. There are grand terraces, such as Kensington Park Gardens, and large villas as in Pembridge Square and around Holland Park. There is also new construction of modern houses tucked away on backland sites.

Since at least 2000, independent shops in Portobello such as Culture Shack have lost out to multinational standardised chains such as Starbucks.

In 2009, Lipka's Arcade, a large indoor antiques market, was replaced by the high-street chain AllSaints. Reflecting the increasing demise of one of the most culturally vibrant parts of central London, the 2011 Census showed that in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in which Notting Hill is situated, the number of Black or Black British and White Irish residents, two of the traditionally largest ethnic minority groups in Notting Hill, declined by 46 and 28 percent respectively in ten years.

The district adjoins two large public parks, Holland Park and Kensington Gardens, with Hyde Park within 1.6 km to the east. The gentrification has encompassed some streets that were among the 1980s' most decrepit, including the now expensive retail sections of Westbourne Grove and Ledbury Road, as well as Portobello Road's emergence as a top London tourist attraction and Chamberlayne Road as a local shopping street with its boutique independent shops. Notting Hill has a high concentration of restaurants, including the two Michelin-rated The Ledbury and Core by Clare Smyth.

More information: Roger Ebert

 You are lovelier this morning

than you have ever been.

William Thacker