Notting Hill
Notting Hill is an affluent district in North-west London, located north of Kensington within the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road Market.
Very run-down until the 1980s, Notting Hill now has a contemporary reputation as an affluent and fashionable area; known for attractive terraces of large Victorian townhouses, and high-end shopping and restaurants . A Daily Telegraph article in 2004 used the phrase the 'Notting Hill Set' to refer to a group of emerging Conservative politicians, such as David Cameron and George Osborne, who would become respectively Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer and were once based in Notting Hill.
For much of the 20th century the large houses were subdivided into multi-occupancy rentals. Caribbean 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.
Since it was first developed in the 1820s, Notting Hill has had an association with artists and "alternative" culture.
Geography
The hill from which Notting Hill takes its name is still clearly visible, with its summit in the middle of Ladbroke Grove, at the junction with Kensington Park Gardens.
Notting Hill has no official boundaries, so definitions of which areas fall under Notting Hill vary. The postcode "W11", centred on the Post Office in Westbourne Grove, near the junction with Denbigh Road, is the one most closely associated with Notting Hill, although the postcode immediately to the north, "W10", covers North Kensington and 'Part' Kensal Green. Notting Hill also covers the NW10 postcode of Kensal.The local historian Florence Gladstone, in her much reprinted work "Notting Hill in Bygone Days" defines Notting Hill as the whole of that part of Kensington which is north of the road known as Notting Hill Gate.
North Kensington is considered the major neighbourhood of Notting Hill, but Kensal Green, Notting Dale, Portobello and Westbourne Park are also part of Notting Hill; though estate agents differentiate North Kensington as a distinct area including Notting Dale, Dalgarno, the area east of Ladbroke Grove and the Kensal areas north and south of the Harrow Road. That part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea roughly encompassed by the electoral wards of Saint Charles, Golborne, Notting Barns, Colville, Norland, and Pembridge, which is bounded on the north by Harrow Road and on the south by Notting Hill Gate and Holland Park Avenue, includes all areas known as Notting Hill, including Notting Barns, the centre of the Notting Hill race riot.David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, is known as part of the "Notting Hill Set", though he states he lives in North Kensington.
There are five tube stations in the area: Kensal Green, Westbourne Park, Ladbroke Grove, Latimer Road and Notting Hill Gate. Kensal Rise is on the overground. Ladbroke Grove tube station was called Notting Hill when it opened in 1864. The name was changed in 1919 to avoid confusion with the new Notting Hill Gate station.
Notting Hill is part of the parliamentary constituency of Kensington, represented by Conservative Sir Malcolm Rifkind.
Areas of Notting Hill
Ladbroke Grove
Notting Hill Gate
Portobello Road
Westbourne Grove
North Kensington
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