Portobello Road

Julian Mash graduated from the University of East Anglia with an MA in Creative Writing in 2011. He spent much of his twenties running a record label and playing in a band before becoming a bookseller. He has lived and worked in and around Portobello Road for the last ten years, half of which was spent working at the Travel Bookshop, a local institution and the inspiration for the bookshop in the film Notting Hill. He is currently manager of the Idler Academy and literary events manager for End of the Road Festival. He was a recipient of a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for Non-Fiction in 2013. 

Introduction: Beyond the Blue Door

 

Part One: Into the Market

Out of the Barrow and Into the Ring

Vinyl Habit: Minus Zero and the Life and Death of the Record Shop

The Travel Bookshop 1979–2011

Homeless Bones: Antiques

Tomorrow’s You: The Health Food Revolutionaries

Sunset Boulevard and the Birth of Vintage Fashion

From Rogue to Vogue: Paul Breuer Vintage Clothes

An Appointment with the Dentist

 

Part Two: Lord, Don’t Stop the Carnival

There’s a Riot Going On: 1958 and the Notting Hill Race Riots

Pageant, Fireworks, Music, Plays & Poetry: The London Free School and the 1966 Carnival

Mas in the Ghetto: Carnival 1973

Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues

The Mangrove Steelband

Fox Friends: The Maverick Masquerade Band

 

Part Three: In Love with Rock ’n’ Roll

Pink Floyd Go into Interstellar Overdrive

Hawkwind: The House Band

1976 Rough Trade and the Birth of Punk

Killing Joke: The Adventures of Youth

Under the Westway: Damon Albarn

The Rise of XL Records

 

Part Four: Bricks and Mortar

A Legal Matter: Goodwin & Knipe

In Search of a Furnished Room

Performance and Powis Square

Further Limits: Duncan Fallowell

Heathcote Williams and the Ruff Tuff Cream Puff Squatting Agency

Basement Bedlam and the Rise of the Super Rich

Behind the Blue Door with Richard Curtis

 

Afterword

Notes

Index

Acknowledgements