The Story Behind Notting Hill's Name

Saxon Roots

The origin of "Notting Hill" remains somewhat mysterious, though historians now believe it most likely derives from a Saxon personal name, Cnotta. The "ing" part means a group or settlement of people, so "Cnottingas" would mean "the people of Cnotta" or "Cnotta's people". The first written record appears in the Patent Rolls of 1356 as "Knottynghull", literally Cnotta's hill. When this was recorded, England was ruled by Edward III, who was about 44 years old at the time and at the height of his military success against France.

An alternative theory suggests the name comes from a medieval manor called "Knotting-Bernes" or "Knotting-Barnes" that once existed in Kensington. Court records from Henry VIII's reign mention "the manor called Notingbarons, alias Kensington". Some sources even link it to Viking King Cnut, though this is less widely accepted among scholars today.

The "hill" part is straightforward. The area sits on higher ground north of Kensington, providing commanding views across what was then countryside.

From Medieval Manor to Tudor Court

The Manor of Kensington was held by the de Vere family, Earls of Oxford, for 500 years after the Norman Conquest in 1086. They divided it into sub-manors, one of which was the Manor of Notting Barns, covering most of what we now call North Kensington.

The break-up of the manor began in 1488 when John de Vere needed to raise money. The manor passed to William, Marquis of Berkeley, and then to Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. Lady Margaret conveyed it to the Abbey of Westminster on the condition that the income would pay for masses to be said for her soul in perpetuity.

The Reformation ended that arrangement. Henry VIII seized the Abbey's lands in 1540 and took Notting Barns into Crown ownership. He initially confirmed the existing tenant Robert White in possession, but in 1543 he reversed that decision and forced White to exchange the manor for one in Hampshire. White had no real choice. You did not say no to Henry VIII about land.

The manor then passed through Tudor courtiers as a series of royal favours. Edward VI granted it to Sir William Paulet. When Paulet fell into debt it returned to Queen Elizabeth, who granted it to her chief minister William Cecil, Lord Burghley. After Burghley's death in 1598 it was sold to Sir Walter Cope, an Elizabethan courtier and right-hand man to the Cecils, who built the great Holland House on his neighbouring Kensington estate.

In 1601 Cope sold the Manor of Notting Barns to Sir Henry Anderson, Sheriff of London, for 3,400 pounds. The Anderson family held it for 164 years.

The Manor Breaks Up

Through the 1600s and 1700s, the manorial system steadily dissolved. The Andersons remained nominal lords of the manor but the practical ownership of the land was carved up and sold off in pieces. By the time Sir Richard Anderson died in 1765, the manorial system had effectively ended.

Two large purchases shaped what came next.

In 1755 Charles Henry Talbot of Inner Temple bought 170 acres on the eastern side of the manor and named it Portobello Farm, after Admiral Vernon's celebrated 1739 capture of Puerto Bello in Panama. The farm was approached along a winding country track called Green's Lane, which from this point was known as Portobello Lane and is now Portobello Road. The Talbot family held the farm for around a century.

At roughly the same time in the mid-1700s, Richard Ladbroke of Tadworth Court in Surrey, from a wealthy banking family, acquired around 170 acres on the higher ground to the west. The Ladbroke estate ran south to what is now Holland Park Avenue, west to Portland Road and Pottery Lane, and east to Portobello Lane. It extended north almost as far as Lancaster Road. Like the Talbots, the Ladbrokes had bought their parcel from the dissolving manor.

So the two estates that would shape modern Notting Hill were neighbouring landholdings, not connected by sale to each other. The Ladbrokes took the western higher ground. The Talbots took the eastern farmland. Between them they covered most of what we now call Notting Hill.

Notting Dale, the lower-lying ground further west and north, was carved up among smaller landowners. The clay pits and pottery kilns came first, the working-class housing followed.

The Ladbroke Vision

By the early 19th century the area was still largely rural. Brick-making and pig-keeping industries used the heavy local clay. One of the historic kilns still stands on Walmer Road today, the only remaining 19th-century tile kiln in London.

The transformation began in the 1820s when James Weller Ladbroke, working with architect Thomas Allason, began developing his estate into a fashionable suburb. Allason's distinctive plan featured large communal gardens, called "pleasure grounds", accessed directly from the rear of terraced houses rather than separated by roads. These private garden squares remain one of Notting Hill's most attractive features for wealthy residents today.

Many streets still bear the Ladbroke name. Ladbroke Grove runs north to south as the area's main axis. Ladbroke Square is London's largest private garden square. The original plan was to call the entire district "Kensington Park", and roads like Kensington Park Road preserve this memory.

The ambitious Hippodrome racecourse venture between 1837 and 1841 was less successful. It failed completely due to the heavy clay soil and public right-of-way issues. The crescent-shaped roads that circumvent the hill, including Blenheim Crescent, Elgin Crescent and Lansdowne Crescent, follow the lines of the old racecourse track. Once the racecourse closed, housing development on the hill resumed and attracted upper-middle-class families seeking stylish homes at lower prices than central London. Writers including Thomas Hardy and John Galsworthy lived and set their work in the area.

The Talbot Estate and the Convent

While the Ladbrokes built grand terraces on the higher ground from the 1820s onwards, the Talbot estate to the east took a different path.

The Talbots held onto Portobello Farm as working farmland for another generation. By 1820 the lawyer William Talbot was in possession of the Notting Barns manor house itself, and by the 1830s the estate had passed to Sir George Talbot, baronet, who ran it as a 182-acre grass farm.

The first significant break came in 1852. The Misses Talbot, Mary Anne and Georgina Charlotte, attempted to sell the whole farm. The only buyer was the Reverend Dr Samuel Walker, a wealthy property speculator who took 51 acres. Walker over-stretched himself, his development failed, and the church he commissioned, All Saints in Talbot Road, stood boarded up for years before being completed in 1861. Locally it was known as Walker's Folly or "All Sinners in the Mud".

The remainder of the estate sold a decade later. In 1862 the speculator Charles Henry Blake bought 130 acres of Talbot land for 107,500 pounds and laid out the streets we know today, including Talbot Road, which preserves the family name.

In 1864 the original Portobello farmhouse and surrounding land were sold to a Dominican order of nuns, who built St Joseph's Convent on the site. The convent dominated the eastern side of Portobello Road for over a century. A second order, the Little Sisters of the Poor, supported destitute people from a nearby base by collecting scraps from London houses to feed paupers in their care. The Dominican convent stood until the 1980s, when it was demolished. Many older Caribbean residents who arrived in the 1950s and 1960s remember St Joseph's as a Portobello Road landmark.

Two Worlds: The Hill and The Dale

Whilst grand terraced houses rose on Notting Hill itself on the higher ground developed by the Ladbrokes, a very different world existed in Notting Dale. This geographical divide became a stark social division.

Notting Dale, concentrated in the deeper valleys beyond Pottery Lane and Portland Road, was carved up among smaller landowners and developed piecemeal from the 1830s onwards. It became home to working-class communities living in overcrowded conditions. An 1850 article in Charles Dickens's magazine Household Words described the Potteries area as "a plague spot scarcely equalled for its insalubrity by any other in London". The language reflected the middle-class prejudices of the era as much as the reality of poor housing and public health provision. In 1893 the Daily News claimed Notting Dale was the most "hopelessly degraded" place in London, yet these were homes where families built lives and communities.

The social reformer Charles Booth documented the poverty just a few hundred yards west of the wealth radiating from Lansdowne Crescent in Notting Hill proper. While Notting Hill became an example of class privilege with its grand townhouses and private communal gardens, Notting Dale's working-class residents, including Irish labourers, laundry workers and later Romani communities, faced harsh conditions but maintained strong community bonds.

From the 1860s onwards, Notting Dale absorbed working people displaced from areas like Marble Arch and Paddington by development schemes that prioritised profit over people.

The Caribbean Community Transforms Notting Hill

The 20th century brought profound changes. After the First World War, large houses requiring servants became impractical. During the Blitz, many buildings were damaged or destroyed. In the post-war period, grand townhouses were subdivided into multi-occupation dwellings.

Following the 1948 British Nationality Act, Caribbean people, particularly from Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and other West Indian islands, arrived in Britain. They were actively recruited by the government to help rebuild the nation after the war. They came as nurses, teachers, skilled tradespeople, engineers and professionals. Many had qualifications and experience, yet faced systematic racism that barred them from jobs and housing. Landlords refused to rent to Black tenants or charged extortionate rates, and "No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs" signs appeared in windows across London.

The Caribbean community established themselves in Notting Hill and Notting Dale despite this hostility. They opened businesses, churches, social clubs and community organisations. They created support networks and built vibrant cultural spaces, bringing music, food and traditions that would transform the area.

In August 1958, white Teddy Boys, influenced by fascist groups, launched violent attacks on the Caribbean community over several days. The community organised to defend themselves and their homes, fighting back against the racist mob. This resistance and the injustice of the violence led to important changes, including Britain's first Race Relations Act.

From this crucible of struggle and resistance, the Caribbean community created the Notting Hill Carnival in the mid-1960s. A celebration of culture, resilience and joy that has become Europe's largest street festival and a defining feature of London's identity.

The Streets the Caribbean Community Built

The streets at the heart of the post-war Caribbean community sat on the old Talbot estate, just east of Portobello Road. Powis Square, All Saints Road, Tavistock Crescent, Colville Terrace and the surrounding streets were where Caribbean families established their homes, churches, social clubs and entertainment venues. The Globe bar at 103 Talbot Road, opened in the 1960s by the actor Roy Stewart, attracted Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The first Carnival procession began on Tavistock Crescent on 18 September 1966.

This was also the centre of Peter Rachman's slum empire. Through the 1950s and 1960s Rachman bought up multi-occupation houses in the area and exploited tenants too vulnerable to rent elsewhere. The English language gained the word "Rachmanism" from his methods. The 1958 race riots happened largely on these streets and the connecting roads down to Notting Dale.

Over the past forty years these streets have gentrified more dramatically than anywhere else in West London. Victorian houses that were once subdivided into Rachman's multi-occupation rooms now sell as single-family homes for several million pounds each. The community that built this area's cultural reputation has been priced out of the streets they made famous.

Housing, Reform and Redevelopment

The dire housing conditions across the area led the Reverend Bruce Kenrick to found the Notting Hill Housing Trust in 1963. He had moved to Notting Hill earlier that year and was appalled by what he found. His own family home on Blenheim Crescent had no kitchen or bathroom. Three years later, in 1966, he co-founded Shelter at St Martin-in-the-Fields, applying national pressure that would contribute to major housing reform in the 1970s.

Major redevelopment followed across the 1960s and early 1970s. The Westway elevated motorway, built between 1962 and 1970, was the first urban motorway in London. It displaced an estimated 5,000 families for each mile constructed and ran for two and a half miles. Trellick Tower, commissioned by the Greater London Council in 1966 and completed in 1972, was built as part of the Cheltenham Estate redevelopment to replace local Victorian slum housing. Both projects faced fierce opposition from local communities. The Westway in particular became a symbol of how post-war planning treated working-class neighbourhoods.

Notting Hill Today

The Ladbroke estate was always built for the wealthy. The grand stuccoed terraces designed in the 1820s for upper-middle-class families never lost that character entirely, even when houses were subdivided into flats from the 1920s onwards. What changed dramatically in the 1980s and 90s was what happened to the streets immediately east of Portobello Road. The old Talbot estate streets, including Powis Square, Colville Terrace, All Saints Road and the surrounding area that had been Rachman territory in the 1950s and the heart of the Caribbean community in the 1960s, were rapidly re-gentrified. Victorian houses that had been carved into multi-occupation rooms came back together as single-family homes. Property prices climbed sharply. The Caribbean families who had built the area's cultural reputation were progressively priced out. The pastel paintwork that has become Notting Hill's trademark began appearing from the 1960s onwards, transforming the Victorian terraces into the colourful streetscapes known worldwide today.

Today, Notting Hill itself is one of London's most expensive neighbourhoods. Houses on the Ladbroke estate sell for many millions of pounds, and the pastel-painted terraces have become a global brand. But the divide between the Hill and the Dale persists. A short walk west takes you from streets where individual houses cost more than ten million pounds to social housing estates including Lancaster West, where the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017 exposed how stark the inequality remains. The Caribbean community that made Notting Hill culturally significant faces displacement through rising rents and property prices, even as the Carnival they created draws over a million visitors annually and defines the area's global reputation.

From Saxon settlement to medieval manor to industrial landscape to Caribbean cultural renaissance to playground of the wealthy, Notting Hill's history reflects London's story. A story of power, dispossession, resistance, creativity and the ongoing struggle over who belongs and who profits from the city.

Discover the untold story of Notting Hill's Caribbean community

From post-war arrival to the birth of Carnival, explore the history that transformed this neighbourhood. Walk where pioneers built businesses, defended their homes in 1958 and created Europe's largest street festival.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where does the name Notting Hill come from?

The name most likely derives from a Saxon personal name, Cnotta. The "ing" part is Saxon for a group or settlement of people, so "Cnottingas" would mean "Cnotta's people" or "the people of Cnotta". The first written record appears in the Patent Rolls of 1356 as "Knottynghull", literally Cnotta's hill. An older theory linking the name to the Viking King Cnut is now less widely accepted by historians.

Who built Notting Hill?

The grand stuccoed terraces of Notting Hill were developed by James Weller Ladbroke and his architect Thomas Allason from the 1820s onwards. The Ladbroke family, wealthy City bankers from Surrey, had acquired around 170 acres of land on the higher ground in the mid-1700s. Allason's 1823 master plan introduced the distinctive feature of large communal gardens accessed from the rear of terraced houses, which remain one of Notting Hill's defining characteristics today.

Who owned Notting Hill before the Ladbrokes?

The land was part of the Manor of Notting Barns, which belonged to the de Vere family for 500 years after the Norman Conquest. It passed through Lady Margaret Beaufort, the Abbey of Westminster, and several Tudor courtiers including Sir William Paulet and Lord Burghley. Sir Walter Cope, an Elizabethan courtier and builder of Holland House, sold the manor to Sir Henry Anderson, Sheriff of London, in 1601 for 3,400 pounds. The Anderson family held it for 164 years until the manorial system dissolved.

What is the difference between Notting Hill and Notting Dale?

Notting Hill refers to the higher ground developed by the Ladbroke family from the 1820s onwards, with grand stuccoed terraces and private communal gardens. It was built for the upper-middle classes and has always been a wealthy area. Notting Dale is the lower-lying ground to the west, around Pottery Lane and Walmer Road, which was working-class from the early 1800s onwards. Notting Dale grew up around brick-making and pig-keeping industries on the heavy local clay, and was described in an 1850 article in Charles Dickens's Household Words magazine as "a plague spot scarcely equalled for its insalubrity by any other in London".

Why is Portobello Road called Portobello?

The road takes its name from Portobello Farm, which once occupied the eastern side of what is now North Kensington. The farm was named in 1739 in honour of Admiral Edward Vernon's celebrated capture of Puerto Bello in Panama. The road, originally a winding country track called Green's Lane, became known as Portobello Lane and later Portobello Road. Portobello Farm was bought by Charles Henry Talbot of Inner Temple in 1755 and remained in the Talbot family until the 1850s and 1860s, when the Misses Mary Anne and Georgina Charlotte Talbot sold it for development.

Where did the Caribbean community settle in Notting Hill?

The post-war Caribbean community settled primarily on the streets just east of Portobello Road, on land that had been part of the Talbot estate. Powis Square, Powis Terrace, Colville Terrace, Tavistock Crescent and All Saints Road were the heart of Caribbean Notting Hill. These were the streets where Caribbean families established their homes, churches, social clubs and entertainment venues. The Globe bar at 103 Talbot Road, opened in the 1960s by Jamaican actor Roy Stewart, attracted Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

When did the first Notting Hill Carnival happen?

The first Notting Hill Carnival procession began on Tavistock Crescent on 18 September 1966, organised by activist Rhaune Laslett and the London Free School. It grew from the Caribbean community's response to the 1958 race riots and from earlier indoor Caribbean Carnival celebrations organised by Claudia Jones from 1959 onwards. The Notting Hill Carnival is now Europe's largest street festival, drawing over a million visitors each year.

Who was Peter Rachman?

Peter Rachman was a Polish-born landlord who exploited tenants in the Notting Hill area through the 1950s and early 1960s. His name gave the English language the word "Rachmanism" as a synonym for landlord exploitation. Rachman bought subdivided properties on Powis Square, Powis Terrace, Colville Terrace and the surrounding streets, drove out protected sitting tenants, and rented rooms to Caribbean immigrants at extortionate rates because they had no other housing options. He died of a heart attack in 1962, aged 43, before his name became publicly notorious during the 1963 Profumo affair.

What were the 1958 Notting Hill race riots?

In late August 1958, white Teddy Boys influenced by fascist groups launched violent attacks on the Caribbean community across several days. Hundreds of attackers targeted Caribbean homes and individuals around Latimer Road, Bramley Road and the streets connecting Notting Dale to Westbourne Park. The Caribbean community organised to defend themselves and their homes. The riots and the public response to the injustice contributed to Britain's first Race Relations Act in 1965, and helped catalyse the founding of the Notting Hill Carnival.

Why are Notting Hill houses pastel-coloured?

The pastel paintwork that has become Notting Hill's trademark began appearing from the 1960s onwards. The Ladbroke estate's grand Victorian terraces were originally finished in plain white or cream stucco. As the area gentrified through the 1970s, 80s and 90s, individual owners began painting their houses in distinctive pastel colours, transforming the streetscapes into the colourful frontages now famous worldwide. The film Notting Hill (1999) helped cement the pastel houses as a global symbol of the area.

How big are the houses on Stanley Crescent?

The houses on Stanley Crescent, designed by Thomas Allom and built by developer Charles Henry Blake from 1853, are among the largest on the Ladbroke estate. They are typically four storeys plus basement and attic, with six bedrooms, two reception rooms, a separate dining room and extensive basement domestic offices. Most are between 5,000 and 8,000 square feet, with the largest stretching beyond 10,000 square feet. They were originally home to single wealthy households, each with four to six live-in servants. Today they are Grade II listed and many have been restored as single-family homes after decades of subdivision into flats.

Did the Ladbrokes own Portobello Farm?

No. The Ladbrokes and the Talbots were neighbouring landowners who bought separate parcels of the dissolving Manor of Notting Barns in the mid-1700s. Charles Henry Talbot bought Portobello Farm in 1755, covering 170 acres on the eastern side of the manor. Richard Ladbroke bought a separate 170 acres of higher ground to the west at around the same time. The Ladbroke estate ran south to Holland Park Avenue, west to Portland Road, and east to Portobello Lane. The Talbot estate began on the eastern side of Portobello Lane and stretched east towards Westbourne Park. The two estates met along Portobello Road but never overlapped.

What is the connection between St Joseph's Convent and Notting Hill?

St Joseph's Convent stood on the eastern side of Portobello Road from 1864 until the 1980s. After the Misses Talbot sold off the last of Portobello Farm in 1862, the original farmhouse and surrounding land were bought by a Dominican order of nuns, the Black Friars, who built the convent on the site. The convent dominated Portobello Road for over a century and was a familiar landmark to the post-war Caribbean residents who arrived in the 1950s and 1960s. The buildings were demolished in the 1980s and the site has since been redeveloped.

Who founded Shelter and the Notting Hill Housing Trust?

The Reverend Bruce Kenrick founded the Notting Hill Housing Trust in 1963 in response to the dire housing conditions he found when he moved to the area. His own family home on Blenheim Crescent had no kitchen or bathroom. Three years later, in 1966, he co-founded Shelter at St Martin-in-the-Fields, applying national pressure that contributed to major housing reform in the 1970s. Both organisations grew out of the Notting Hill housing crisis of the early 1960s.

How did the Westway and Trellick Tower change Notting Hill?

The Westway elevated motorway, built between 1962 and 1970, was the first urban motorway in London. It ran for two and a half miles and displaced an estimated 5,000 families for each mile constructed, transforming the northern end of Notting Hill and triggering significant local protest. Trellick Tower, designed by Ernő Goldfinger and completed in 1972, was commissioned by the Greater London Council to replace local Victorian slum housing as part of the Cheltenham Estate redevelopment. Both projects faced fierce opposition and reshaped the relationship between Notting Hill, Notting Dale and Kensal Town.

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