Notting Hill’s Secret Spots: A Self-Guided Walking Tour

Sisters, listen to me. Don't just crowd into the Portbello Fair to shoot that colored house! Two steps deep into Elgin Crescent Lane, there's an old house with a mint green door number with brass bells, a painted old man's bike at the door all year round, and when the sun slants down, even the crooked-neck mailbox at the door comes with True Love First BGM! Wearing a dress for me to retro build! Turn out the polka-dot shirt from Grandma's closet, pair with wide-leg jeans and a whole newspaper hat. I was standing on a cobblestone road that day taking a side shot of suede boots at a £35 second-hand shop at Subway Crossing, and my friends said it looked like they'd come out of Guess the Train! By the way, every Thursday at 3 p.m., under the crooked-necked sycamore tree in Ladbroke Square, the blue swings are painted and squirmed to capture the church spire poking out through the leaves, so beautiful that it chokes!

The instructions provided for how to redeem the tour were non-existent and instructions for cancellation were equally vague. I emailed the tour provider for help but it took them 2 days to respond. In the meantime, sensing that I had wasted my money, I spent quite some time trying to work it out for myself and eventually found some info on a forum, which pointed me to downloading the Viator app, so I decided to cancel that way. Would have been useless if I had booked on the day! Very dissatisfied, won’t use again.

A great tour, and I like that it hit so many spots in the neighborhood, and shared a mix of pop culture, history, and more current stories from the neighborhood. And because it's self guided, I could skip through the bits that weren't relevant and repeat the ones that were. The hosts had great chemistry and I really enjoyed their light banter.