Notting Hill Twenty five years on, how hit film turbo-charged area's gentrification

She was only a girl, standing in front of a boy asking him to love her, but would Anna Scott and William Thacker recognise the Notting Hill that exists today, 25 years on from their fictional meet cute?

- Rachel Hall

Parts of the west London borough in which the film is set were down at heel and bohemian - a far cry from much of today's Notting Hill, where it was revealed this week residents received more in capital gains from 2015 to 2019 than the combined populations of Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle.

Many of the features that gave the area its charm in the 1999 film still exist: the rows of pastel-colored Georgian townhouses, the bustling Portobello Road market, the plethora of independent businesses. Yet intense gentrification has also changed Notting Hill - and planned redevelopment of the famous market could alter its character irrevocably, local business owners and market traders have said.

Arguably the neighbourhood's best known business is the Notting Hill Bookshop, where the actress Scott, played by Julia Roberts, first encounters the local bookseller Thacker, played by Hugh Grant. It's now co-owned by Howard Malin, who has lived in the area for 40 years and watched it "change a lot".

"The artistic community gets pushed further out because of affordability issues. Twenty-five years ago this was quite edgy, there was a strong Caribbean influence, more so than now - very artistic, a little bit bohemian," said Malin.