Edit No.37
Notting Hill, Four Streets Deep
Gold · Saucy Books · Notting Hill Bakery · The Lost Poet · Naked & Famous
Notting Hill, Four Streets Deep begins on Portobello Road at Gold, where a punk-era pub became a four-floor restaurant cooking everything over wood, with an ex-River Café chef in the kitchen and Vhils' Eye Contact mural watching the market.
A few streets north on Westbourne Park Road, Saucy Books is England's first romance-only bookshop, shelved by trope rather than author and re-themed every few months.
On Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill Bakery spent more than thirty years supplying London's restaurants before opening its own shop in 2024.
Back at the top of Portobello Road, The Lost Poet is a four-room townhouse hotel by Cubic Studios, with no lobby, no restaurant and a different personality on every floor.
Beneath zēphyr on Portobello Road, Naked & Famous is a thirty-five-seat agave cocktail bar in a 1970s-styled basement, worth booking for an evening or the last stop of one.
In this edit
Wellness
Cloud Twelve — Before Wellness Became a Family Affair
Long before family-focused wellness clubs became a London proposition, Cloud Twelve was combining spa treatments, complementary healthcare and childcare in a quiet Notting Hill mews. We went as non-members, and the massage was one of the best we have had.
Place
Naked & Famous — The Other Side of Portobello Road
Beneath zēphyr on Portobello Road sits a thirty-five-seat cocktail bar devoted to agave spirits and 1970s glamour. We have returned several times, drawn by the room as much as by a list that goes well past the conventional Margarita.
Living
The Lost Poet — Four Rooms, Four Personalities
No lobby, no restaurant and four bedrooms. At the top of Portobello Road, a local design studio has made something closer to a private townhouse than a hotel, and we stayed in the pink room on the first floor.
Place
Notting Hill Bakery — The Bread You Already Knew
For more than thirty years its bread arrived on tables across London without anyone knowing whose it was. Now the bakery has a shop of its own, and a pain au chocolat worth crossing the neighbourhood for.
Reading
Saucy Books — Romance Gets Its Own Bookshop
A former technology executive built an independent Notting Hill bookshop around a single genre. Sixteen months later it sold out a black-tie ball at the Café Royal for the launch of one novel.
Place
Gold — Seven Years of the Same Good Idea
A Noughties nightclub impresario took a pub where the Sex Pistols drank, put a River Café chef in the kitchen and lit a wood fire. Seven years on, the best things on the menu are the ones that were there at the start.
Questions
- What is in this edit?
- So far, Gold, a four-floor wood-fired restaurant and late bar at 95–97 Portobello Road; Saucy Books, a romance-only bookshop at 236 Westbourne Park Road; Notting Hill Bakery at 283 Westbourne Grove; The Lost Poet, a four-room townhouse hotel at 6 Portobello Road; and Naked & Famous, a cocktail bar beneath zēphyr at 100 Portobello Road.
- Who is the chef at Gold?
- Theo Hill, formerly of the River Café.
- What is Saucy Books?
- England's first independent bookshop devoted entirely to romance fiction.
- When did Notting Hill Bakery open to the public?
- In 2024, after more than thirty years as a wholesale bakery.
- How many rooms does The Lost Poet have?
- Four, one per floor: The Suite, The Quarters, The Salon and The Muse.
- Do you need to book at Naked & Famous?
- Yes, advisable — especially towards the weekend. Private hire is available.