Notting Hill and Moulin Rouge

 Saturday July 19, 2025  

This is our last full day in London and we decided that this would be the day we went to Notting Hill. This is where one of our favourite movies (aptly named Notting Hill) was filmed. You can watch this movie over and over and it is still funny! More importantly, the romantic part of this romantic comedy is very satisfying. So we were on a mission to see some of the filming locations from the movie.

The rain (and the multitudes of tourists) did not cooperate with us. Yesterday was sunny and 29 degrees celsius and today was heavy rain and perhaps 15 degrees celsius (I forgot to check what the actual temperature was!)

We had read that Saturday was the day they had an antiques market on Portobello Road in Notting Hill… but if it was there, it was not what I expected. There was the regular market stuff (food, tourist stuff and flowers) and there were also vintage clothes and miscellaneous old stuff you might find at your grandma’s house. I’m not sure if this was the antiques market but I was expecting bigger stuff (furniture, paintings, chandeliers… you get what I mean). Anyway, this didn’t stop me from having such an enjoyable walk through the market that I forgot to look for the Notting Hill places!

Just one section of the market. I forgot to take pictures of the others!

This photo doesn't really do it justice. It was packed with people and vendors. You'll just have to use your imagination!

The side streets were almost empty while the main street was packed (despite the rain!)

After perusing the market, we happened across a place called the Notting Hill Bookshop on a side street off the main road. This location is not from the movie, but is apparently set up, inside the store, to look like it was from the movie. There were very very, VERY many young ladies taking instagram photos in front of the store. So many in fact, that it deterred me from going in to see if I wanted to buy a book! 

I'm thinking Steve used the object eraser to get rid of most of the people in front of the shop. It did not look like this in real life!

We actually went into a restaurant across the street to have a delicious breakfast and discovered when we had finished that one girl who had been taking pictures in front of the store before we went into the restaurant… was still taking photos of herself after we finished our breakfast. I don’t get it… but you do you, young lady.

Side note: While we were eating breakfast, Steve was asked by a stranger if he was Stephen Kerr (An American basketball coach). This has actually happened to him several times when we were in the USA, but we were surprised someone in London asked him! I’m going to try to include a picture of Stephen Kerr here so you can decide if you think they look alike. (Also people definitely think it's him when they hear me calling him Steve. One kid told his mom that he would just say he's not Stephen Kerr so people don't bother him... but really it's him!)

What do you think? Do they look alike? I can see it a little. 🤔

Celebrity Mistaken Identity Counter on this Trip = 1

We did go to the spot of the actual book store that was used during filming. It turns out it wasn’t actually a bookstore at the time but an antiques arcade. It has been several businesses in the interim and is now a souvenir shop cashing in on the Notting Hill groupies (it looks like rather successfully too!) There were too many people and umbrellas so I elected not to go in, but my persistent husband went and got some photos for me which I’m including here for you to see so you don’t have to put yourself through it personally!

Next we went to find the blue door that was the location of William Thackery’s (Hugh Grant’s) apartment in the movie. Guess what? There were several people and their umbrellas in line to take their own photo. It was raining pretty hard at this point (so much that my clothes were wet under my raincoat!) So I elected to stand across the street and do the selfie with Steve with random people in the background.

After this we quickly went to catch an Uber back to the hotel… there was no end in sight for this very heavy rain!

Side note: in my haste to get out of the rain I forgot to go look for the park gate in the movie that they climbed over to get into the private park. Steve really wanted to recreate that scene… next time, I guess!

Since it was our last day, I wanted to go back to the bakery that had the amazing cheesecake. I had the cheesecake again, but with the chocolate sauce that they recommended, and have to admit that it wasn’t as good as last time. Now it was still excellent, but if you go, don’t ruin the beautiful San Sebastián cheesecake by putting chocolate sauce on it. Steve had a chocolate cake this time fashioned after the cake in Matilda which was also excellent.

Next we headed back to our room for a nap. (Only one hour so we don’t completely destroy our jet lag training!)

After this we got ready for our final show and headed out for dinner. We decided to go to “All Bar One” again because we really wanted to get a shooter glass of smarties with our tea. Here’s a note to them, “Your little smarties glass does keep customers coming back.” 😁

We decided to have the trio of fries for dinner, which was quite tasty. (There is going to have to be some serious food retraining when we get home! But let’s not think about that yet!)

Our previous visits to this bar/restaurant had all been earlier in the day and we were surprised by the vibe of it in the early evening. There were many young people standing out on the sidewalk drinking. This is common in London (and other places in Europe). People buy their drinks and then stand outside on the street and chat while they drink them. I personally prefer to sit down 🤷 We did find a table inside, despite the many people standing outside. The music was also pumping, which wasn’t unpleasant. 😎 We enjoyed our final tea with smarties and French fries and then headed out to our last show of this trip, Moulin Rouge.

This show was a solid 9/10. Terrific sets and costuming, interesting characters, great story and pretty good singing and dancing. We both enjoyed the way they incorporated snippets of popular songs to tell the story. Steve was a little disappointed that it wasn’t more risqué, but managed to get over it.

Of course you can't take photos during the show, but the performers came out before the show to stare at the audience with seductive poses and sultry eyes. Here is a small peek into what that looks like.

All in all we loved our time in London and definitely plan to be back for more shows and hopefully museums next time. Oh, and also so Steve can recreate the park scene from Notting Hill!