“Street where the riches of ages are stowed. Anything and everything a chap can unload, is sold off the barrow in Portobello road.”

Yes, “you’ll find what you want in the Portobello road!”

But we didn’t. My wife and I visited the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in September of 2018 to walk the pavements of this old road, made famous in the song from the Disney Classic Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Sung by Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson, the song Portobello Road always made me want to visit this historic spot and shop for my own ‘artifacts to glorify (my) regal abode’.

And finally I was in England! The problem was we could only visit on a weekday, and the real markets don’t open until the weekend, mainly Saturdays.

There were many permanent shops that were, to say the least, unusual. Others didn’t quite live up to these words from our feature song:

“There’s pure inspiration in every creation. No cheap imitations, not here in me store.”

Well, that may have been true during the 1940’s, the period of the film. But now, it’s cheap creations straight from China!

If we had been there on a Saturday, the spots pictured below would have been full:

Other shops were just purr-fect:

I wonder if she purrs with an accent?

All in all, it was still a thrill to visit an actual place featured in an old Disney movie. And although we didn’t find any ‘tokens and treasures’ or ‘yesterday’s pleasures’ in the stores we visited, we did make memories that’ll last a lifetime!

So I was able to cross off another place to visit from my Disney Bucket List. This one may have been ‘dented and tarnished, scarred and unvarnished’, but I loved it just the same!

FUN FACT: Portobello Road was written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. Of course!