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Fanspot The Travel Book Shop

“Happiness isn’t happiness without a violin-playing goat.” Anna Scott (Julia Roberts)

When filming begins, director Roger Michell fears that the arrival of Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts on Portobello Road will cause a riot. Nevertheless, the security service works miracles and everything goes on as planned.

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The bookstore run by William Thacker, Hugh Grant’s character, becomes the epicenter of the production. While the team takes up residence in a store that they have to make up as a bookstore, the inspiration for the project comes from a real bookstore, based around the corner. The store in question, called The Travel Book Shop, refused the presence of the cameras, so Roger Michell had to content himself with reproducing the decor in another room.

The shop closed in 2011, following the increase in rents in this very popular area. The owners have moved to 13 Blenheim Crescent. Fun fact: the travel book section is still called The Travel Book Shop.

The first version of the film lasted 210 minutes. Almost 90 minutes were thus cut off.

The Travel Bookshop

The Travel Book Shop is not really a bookstore but a souvenir store. Even if the sign might suggest otherwise.

When director Roger Michell sets up his cameras in the little store at 142 Portobello Road, it is occupied by a store called Nicholls Antique Arcade. Later, the Gong sign sold furniture and eventually gave way to the souvenir shop. However, the owners decided to capitalize on the success of Notting Hill by putting the sign from the movie above their store. The perfect place to buy trinkets and other objects with the image of London.

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London's guide to the 1000 cult locations for films, series, music, comics and novels

Are you going to LONDON? Are you fans of series, movies, comics, music, novels? This guide is for you!

Harry Potter, James Bond, Bridget Jones, The Persuaders!, Black Mirror, The Crown, Dr Who, Mister Bean, Monty Python, Sherlock Holmes, Blake and Mortimer, The Beatles, David Bowie, The Who, Amy Winehouse, Dracula, Oliver Twist…

With more than 1000 cult locations for movies, TV series, music, comics, novels, the London Fantrippers Guide offers an unusual and unique travel experience through more than 1000 places of cult fiction specially selected for you.

It’s the bible of pop culture in the British capital!

With its three ways of consulting, discover London:

• by neighborhoods by immediately visualizing the right addresses around you
• by themes (bars, restaurants, shopping, gluttony, culture …) for a tailor-made outing according to your desires
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After New York and Paris, this third book in the collection is enriched by a new model, a revised pagination (640 pages) and for the first time original film journeys (Harry Potter, James Bond, Alfred Hitchcock, romantic comedies, superheroes), series (God save the Queen, detective series, humor series, Dr Who), music (The Beatles, the Britpop, Icones 60-70 , pop, punk), comics (Blake and Mortimer, From Hell, superhero), Victorian London, thriller, Jack The Ripper, Sherlock Holmes.

Discover all the places Notting Hill on our map

By Gilles Rolland

Passionné de cinéma, de rock and roll, de séries TV et de littérature. Rédacteur de presse et auteur des livres Le Heavy Metal au cinéma, Paroles de fans Guns N' Roses, Paroles de fans Rammstein et Welcome to my Jungle : 100 albums rock et autres anecdotes dépareillées. Adore également voyager à la recherche des lieux les plus emblématiques de la pop culture.

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'Notting Hill' Stans Are Proposing At This IRL Film Location & My Heart Is SO FULL

If you’re just a girl, standing in front of a bookshop, asking if it’s the one from Notting Hill — there’s a chance you’re going to have to fight the crowds to get your romcom fix. The film, which features Hugh Grant as a bumbling bookshop owner in the London neighbourhood, is officially turning twenty next year and fans of the flick still filter in day in and day out to visit the bookshop. One of the shop’s owners revealed that in fact it’s become a popular proposal spot with young lovers cosying up between the bookshelves and dropping to one knee. So, where is the bookshop from Notting Hill ? Well for starters, it goes by a different name IRL.

In the film, the bookshop goes by the name The Travel Book Company and was based on another real store called The Travel Bookshop. The movie wasn't actually filmed in there as apparently the owners told Hollywood to buzz off , Sky reports, but the Notting Hill crew did completely rebuild it for the beloved romance. Sadly, the family-run establishment which served as the original inspiration closed in 2011. However, it was later bought by a company called The Book Warehouse according to Sky and now goes by the name The Notting Hill Bookshop . As a lovely little nod to the film, the back part of the store is still called The Travel Book Co. .

The iconic shop is located just off Portobello Road and the full address is 13 Blenheim Crescent, London W11 2EE.

It’s easily recognisable by its exterior, which is matched to a similar hue to another iconic Notting Hill sight: Hugh Grant’s blue door. (You can also visit that door, which is still blue and always crowded with fans, over at 280 Westbourne Park Road.)

James Malin, one of the owners of The Notting Hill Bookshop, spoke with The Sunday Telegraph ahead of the film’s 20th anniversary. He revealed that loads of tourists visiting London have actually popped in and then popped the question , with many proposals taking place amidst the rare books. Malin and his brother Howard seem like they’re secret romantics themselves, as Malin revealed that occasionally they’ll play a part in making the proposal extra special.

He said, “We have had several [proposals] during the past few years and there’s other people that we are not aware of, like an American couple we didn’t find out about until they returned for their anniversary. We don’t always find out they are proposing, but if they want us to do something special, we will.”

The heartwarming tale of an awkward bookshop owner and international Hollywood star turns out to be a way more universal one than I thought. Malin explained that many travel in from places as far flung as Asia and Australia.

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He said, “We have seen an increase in the past five years but I can’t say why, it’s just a great thing to happen. They come from all over — it’s like a — we’ve had people from Australia, America, China and Japan.”

It sounds like some people have gone above and beyond just dropping to one knee, as he recounted a story of how a Chinese couple showed up to take professional wedding photographs in full regalia.

Another couple from Germany also combined two of my favourite things ( Notting Hill and Harry Potter ) as one of them snuck an engagement ring into the back of a Harry Potter book and surprised his partner with it.

My favourite story though? Apparently one couple actually had their own Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant meet-cute at the shop. I’m seething with jealousy.

Malin said, “A young Chinese couple who met in our shop...came back six months later to tell us they were still together.”

Gah. I’m signing off for the day, a Notting Hill re-viewing is in order.

The heartbreaking true story of the bookshop that inspired the Notting Hill film

The Travel Bookshop was actually a real place

• 12:42, 19 AUG 2020

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Movie enthusiasts across the world have travelled the streets of West London in search of the beloved travel bookshop that featured in the iconic film, Notting Hill.

The quaint book store known in the film as The Travel Book Company was owned by Will, Hugh Grant's character, and it was actually based on a real Notting Hill book store.

The real book store, called The Travel Bookshop was the inspiration for the 1999 classic but to the upset of Notting Hill fans, it sadly closed in 2011 after a hard fought campaign.

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The family run shop on Blenheim Crescent, just off Portobello Road , opened in 1979 and was frequented by Notting Hill film director Richard Curtis which led to the inspiration for the film.

Although the movie wasn't actually filmed in the West London store, its interior design provided the arrangement for the on set replica. But after 32 long years in business, the store fell on hard times and found itself on the brink of closure in 2011.

Several writers and actors launched a campaign to reverse the closure and the save the specialist book store.

Poet, Olivia Cole led the way in 2011 even offering to volunteer at the store saying in the Guardian: "It’s an amazing specialist bookshop and it has the Notting Hill novelty but it is the same sad story that we’re seeing in high streets all over the country.

"Loads of independent bookshop are having a bad time."

Actor, Alec Baldwin who played Julia Roberts' boyfriend in the film was also in support of the campaign calling for it to be saved. However, the iconic store, which helped Notting Hill gross more than £220 million, closed for good in 2011.

However, like a phoenix rising rising from the ashes, the store was bought back to life after being purchased by The Book Warehouse. It's in the same location on Blenheim Crescent as the original store but now goes by the name, The Notting Hill Bookshop, no longer operating as a specialist travel book shop.

The last owner of The Travel Bookshop said in The Bookseller: "'Book warehouses are just that; a place where remaindered books, cards, calendars, magazines etc are found.

"Worthy though such enterprises are, 'The Book Warehouse Notting Hill' has no association whatsoever - despite its occupying a part of the old location of The Travel Bookshop - with that 30+ year-old enterprise."

Many Notting Hill fans still visit the Notting Hill Bookshop, with some lovebirds even proposing in the romantic spot. So although The Travel Bookshop is no more, its legacy of romance and mystery still lives on in West London.

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The Notting Hill Bookshop

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13 Blenheim Crescent

Notting Hill

London W11 2EE

United Kingdom

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You won't be the only one trying to snap a photo in front of the store! What I love about this place is that the shop is actually cute on the inside and although a popular tourist spot thanks to Julia and Hugh, it's a great bookshop on its own. What I was surprised about was that a number of other book shops have popped up in Notting Hill trying to catch the tourists, but this is the OG.

I suppose this is a cool spot if you're a big fan of the movie. However, just remember that there are tons of people who are there for the same reason. They sell lots of swag and shopping bags from the movie as well.

I love to purchase a book from a bookstore while traveling. This bookstore is very cute and has a good selection.

When I travel, one of my favorite things to do is to locate and a visit independent bookstores. I must admit, being a fan of the movie Notting Hill I had to visit this cute little shop modeled after the one in the movie. The real shop that was used in the movie is a souvenir shop. This store is so cute and filled with all kinds of books. I ended up buying a couple of books along with a tote bag. I could have spent hours in here mulling through section by section of all the interesting books they carry. We had more sightseeing to do so I was in and out within an hour. Their children's area was magical with a windowed roof to allow the sunshine in. This area also featured cute little stools and a table for reading.The travel section was loaded with all kinds of books on faraway places. The staff were helpful and kind and I would recommend a stop here if you are a book lover like me while visiting this very charming neighborhood of London.

A cool indie bookstore made famous by the movie starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. The shop is popular amongst tourists wanting to snap their pic in the storefront, and mostly people just go in to gawk without buying anything. Because of this, the staff is a little on the cold side and not super helpful. The shop is small, but has a pretty impressive selection. It's also organized nicely making it easy to browse and find your next favorite title. Prices are standard, and if you're a fan of the film, still a cool little stop to make as the area surrounding is fun to explore.

I love independent book stores. While dropping my daughter off to do her study abroad in London we visited the Notting Hill Bookshop, lured there, mostly, because of the movie which featured a bookstore modeled after this one. It was lovely inside. In addition to a good selection of books, they had nice gifts and a decent children's section. We each bought a book and one of their great canvas tote bags. The area has other shops and restaurants.

We found it!

This store was fantastic! I'm not a big reader (I was here as a tourist bc of the movie), but the selection got me really excited to read. I was most mesmerized by the beautifully decorated leather bound older children's books like The Little Mermaid and Alice in Wonderland. Beyond that, there were fantastic looking books across an array of topics that piqued my interest. If I lived closer, I think I'd be there on a regular basis, which says a lot coming from someone who only buys online and doesn't typically read books.

The Notting Hill Bookshop was originally called the "Travel Book Co." in the romantic comedy Notting Hill (1999), which the shop was run by the Hugh Grant character.

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The Travel Bookshop Notting Hill London

The Travel Bookshop, Notting Hill, West London

Made famous by its role in the 1999 film Notting Hill , The Travel Bookshop is an iconic presence in the Notting Hill district of west London .

The Travel Bookshop was founded in 1979 and aims to offer the literary traveler a complete reading experience that includes every country in the world.

The book shop is situated among the local art galleries, cafes, and the many boutiques of Notting Hill. It is open from 10 am to 6 pm Monday to Saturday and 12 pm to 5 pm on Sundays.

London’s The Travel Bookshop on Blenheim Crescent in Notting Hill. W11

Visitors to London may also enjoy visiting the Tower of London , St Paul’s Cathedral , or the Houses of Parliament . Portobello Road and its market are nearby.

Access – Getting There

The Travel Bookshop 13-15 Blenheim Crescent Notting Hill London W11 2EE Tel: 020 7229 5260

The nearest tube stations to the bookshop are Ladbroke Grove on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines or Notting Hill on the Central Line. The following London buses pass close to Notting Hill Tube Station: 27, 28, 52, 328, 452, N27, N28, and N31.

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The Travel Bookshop

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I founded the Travel Bookshop in 1979; it was run privately for more than 30 years. Nestled between the local art galleries, eateries and the many retro and avant-garde boutiques of Notting Hill, it offered a cornucopia for travelling readers. So enticing was this bookshop, it was chosen as the main setting and inspiration for the 1998 film Notting Hill starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts .

I was often asked why I had started the shop and so here is the story behind it … Almost my first job had been in a bookshop – WJ Bryce in Museum Street near the British Museum. I LOVED working there although I was only paid £7 a week. After about 2 years I left to go travelling and when I came back (having been round the world and having lived in New York), I had a bad skiing accident. There is nothing like being unable to move to give you time to think. I decided to go to university and got accepted to read Chinese at SOAS – after that 4 year course I still wasn’t qualified to do anything so I mentioned to somebody that when I retired I would like to have my own bookshop. They looked at me and asked ‘Retire from what, Sarah?’ and ‘If you want to do something, do it now.’ Good advice. I decided to specialise in travel and was the first shop to arrange the books under country – so that I had function side by side with guides and histories etc. Although it still might not have gone ahead – as I went to the US for a holiday – tod people of my plans – and they all told me what a great idea it was, but they also warned me that when I got back to the UK – people would say ‘Don’t do it.’ That’s exactly what happened – but geared up by the American ‘can do’ philosophy – I went ahead. I opened in Abingdon Road in Kensington and in late 1981 moved myself and the shop to Blenheim Crescent – where the shop, now known as the Notting Hill Bookshop, flourishes. All of this and more can be read about in my autobiography Halfway to Venus – now available as an e-book.

The Notting Hill Bookshop

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A Self-Guided Walking Tour of "Notting Hill" Film Locations in London

The 1999 film "Notting Hill" is set in the district of London by the same name where a bookshop owner played by Hugh Grant meets a famous American actress played by Julia Roberts.

If you're taking a trip to England's capital city, you can take a walking tour of locations made famous by this romantic comedy by starting from the Notting Hill Gate tube station . The walk is about two miles long and will take under an hour to complete from start to finish, but you could also spend more time at any of these destinations, so set aside extra time for your trip just in case.

The Print Room (Formerly Coronet Cinema)

At 103 Notting Hill Gate—next to or opposite the Notting Hill Gate tube station (depending on which exit you take)—you'll find the ​ Print Room , which was formerly the Coronet Cinema. This is where the character William (Hugh Grant) watched "Helix," the science fiction short film starring Anna Scott (Julia Roberts).​​​​​

The Coronet opened as a theater in 1898 and was such a well-respected venue that it was where King Edward VII saw a performance and Sir John Gielgud watched his first Shakespeare play. It served as a cinema for the local community for years and was transformed back to a theater in 2010.

If you have the time, you can return here later at night to catch an Off-West End show, a poetry reading, musical performance, or even an educational talk or discussion. 

Bella and Max's House

The next stop on the tour is the home of William's friends Bella, played by Gina Mckee. From the Print Room, walk down Notting Hill Gate towards Holland Park tube station. At Holland Park station, turn right onto Lansdowne Road then walk until you come to 91 Lansdowne Road on your right.

In the film, William surprises his younger sister, Honey Thacker, and her partner Bernie (Hugh Bonneville) by bringing the famous Anna to Honey's birthday party at Gina's house. William and Anna wind up leaving the party rather intoxicated, laughing as they ventured out into the neighborhood. You can snap a quick picture in front of the building before continuing to follow the pair back into the neighborhood.

Rosmead Gardens

Right around the corner, you can take in excellent views of  Rosmead Gardens , where Anna and William first stumbled drunkenly after leaving Gina's house. Simply turn around and make your first right onto Rosmead Road.

Anna and William break into these private communal garden, but while the movie may have made it appear like a good idea to break into these gardens, it's best to just observe them from the road. Not only is it illegal to trespass on this private property, but if you try to climb over the wall like Hugh Grant, there is a pretty big drop from the railings on the other side and you could get injured.

Rosmead Gardens is part of the Ladbroke Estate, which includes other nearby private gardens: Arundel Gardens and St. John's. Despite looking like a small park, these private gardens are owned and maintained by the local residents, who are the only people with keys for access.

Portobello Road Market

From the gardens, head back to the left along Lansdowne Road, past Gina's house, and make a left onto Ladbroke Grove (the first left). Walk up a block to Elgin Crescent, make a right, then continue two blocks before making another right onto Portobello Road.

This section of the street is known as Portobello Road Market , which is one of the most famous street markets in the world. With markets held six days a week—including the popular Saturday antique sale—Portobello Road Market is a great way to spend the afternoon even if you're not a fan of the "Notting Hill" film.

In the opening scene of the movie, Hugh Grant is seen walking down Portobello Road Market on his way to his bookshop, The Travel Book Company.

The Travel Bookshop

For fans of the film, in particular, the Travel Book Shop is a must-see destination on the walking tour and is less than a block from where you turn onto Portobello Road from Elgin Crescent.

This spot at 142 Portobello Road was used as the location for William Thacker's (Hugh Grant's) Travel Book Shop in the movie, but there has never been a bookshop there. It was formerly the Nicholls Antique Arcade, then a furniture store called Gong, and it currently serves as a gift shop. There is a sign on the building, though, for "The Travel Book Shop" that has remained in place since filming took place in 1998. 

The fictional bookstore in the film was also based on the real Travel Bookshop nearby (13 Blenheim Crescent), which you can get to by turning back down Portobello Road, walking past Elgin Crescent, and making a left on Blenheim Crescent. The original Travel Bookshop closed in 2011 but has since reopened as the Notting Hill Bookshop.

The Blue Door (William's Flat)

For the next stop, continue up Portobello Road to the left from the Notting Hill Bookshop, past Saint's Tattoo Parlour where a confused man in the movie stumbles out with a tattoo of "I Love Ken" but no recollection of why he got it. The next road, Westbourne Park Road, is where you'll find the famous blue door that leads to William's flat in the film.

The house was once owned by the movie's screenplay writer, Richard Curtis. The blue door was incredibly popular and many people came to write their name on it, but the original was removed and sold at auction at Christie's. It was replaced with a black door to not attract so much attention, but time has moved on and the current owners have kindly painted the door blue again.

The property is valued in the multi-millions and is actually a converted chapel with huge windows and ornate church features, thus nothing like the studio set used for the interior scenes in the movie. You can't see any of this from the street though, but you can snap a quick photograph in front of the new blue door.

Coffee Shop

Once you've snapped a photograph, head back across Portobello Road to the opposite corner, where you'll find a chain coffee shop called CoffeeBello. In the film, there was a small cafe next door with tables and chairs on the sidewalk, but now it's a hair salon.

This is where William buys a glass of orange juice and then bumps into Anna on the corner, spilling the juice on her. He then explains he lives just across the road and suggests they go there to get cleaned up.

Tony's Restaurant

From the coffee shop on the corner, continue down Portobello Road the way you were heading before stopping at the blue door. You'll pass under The Westway then turn right onto Golborne Road to arrive at 105 Golborne Road, where you'll find the location of Tony's Restaurant in the film.

Now an art store and gift shop called Portfolio, this location in the film was owned by William Thacker's friend Tony (Richard McCabe). The aptly-named Tony's Restaurant was deemed a failure, but Tony and his friend Bernie played "Blue Moon" on the piano on the night it closed in the film.

Ending the Walking Tour

From here you could walk along Portobello Road all the way back to Notting Hill Gate, although Ladbroke Grove tube station or Westbourne Park tube stations are both closer. Alternatively, you could continue up Golborne Road and take a walk along the Grand Union Canal.

To reach the canal, walk up Golborne Road and continue straight ahead, passing Trellick Tower on your right. When the road bends to the left and becomes Kensal Road, head onto the canal path next to Meanwhile Gardens. Turn right and in about 20 minutes you'll reach Little Venice where you could consider doing the Little Venice to Camden Walk.

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Fantasy Valuation: The Travel Book Co. from Notting Hill

Next up in the fantasy valuation series is the setting for one of the capital’s most famous romcoms: Notting Hill .

Whether you are a fan of Richard Curtis’ popular nineties love story between London bookshop owner and everyman Willam Thacker and glamourous Hollywood film star Anna Scott, or the vibrant district in Kensington and Chelsea which shares its name, Notting Hill needs little introduction.

Filming for Anna (Julia Roberts) and Will’s (Hugh Grant) first and subsequent encounters at Will’s bookshop – The Travel Book Co. – took place in the heart of the upmarket West London enclave on Portobello Road, which is also home to the well-known market of the same name.

And who could forget those famous lines uttered amongst the shelves: “I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”

Interestingly, Will’s bookshop was based on a real-life Notting Hill institution called The Travel Bookshop which was located at 13 Blenheim Crescent. The Travel Bookshop was a regular haunt of screenwriter and Notting Hill local Richard Curtis although it is now under new ownership and has been renamed The Notting Hill Bookshop . The flat above the shop sold for a cool £1,450,000 in August 2016.

However, the location for The Travel Book Co. in the film was 142 Portobello Road, which is now a gift shop that pays homage to its famous bibliophile roots.

Whilst the giftshop itself is not for sale, it is possible to live in the same building since there is a three-storey, three-bedroom flat with a charming roof terrace located above the shop. Although like most properties in London, you would need deep pockets if you wanted to buy it!

How much would this flat set you back you might wonder? Well handily we can let you know, since the flat came onto the market on a leasehold basis in September 2022 for the wallet straining price of £2,375,000.

Of course, this is a bargain in comparison to Will’s own ‘humble’ abode in the film, with its famous blue front door and clothes averse Welsh lodger, which would set you back a good deal more were it to come onto the market today. Richard Curtis chose to take work home with him quite literally during filming by using his own property at the time – 280 Westbourne Park Road – as the location for Will’s house in Notting Hill . Handily, it is only 4 minutes’ walk from The Travel Book Co. location at 142 Portobello Road, although convenience certainly comes at a cost!

The three-bedroom terraced house sold most recently in June 2014 for a cool £4,575,000 and is valued at around £6 million today according to Zoopla and Mouseprice .

You can still soak up the Notting Hill vibe for (slightly!) less though. According to Rightmove the average property price in the district over the last 12 months was £1,608,526 and rental prices start at £1,175 per calendar month for a studio flat. A bargain then!

Main photo – Editorial credit: cktravels.com / Shutterstock.com

November 28, 2022

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21 of the Most Charming Secrets About Notting Hill You Could Imagine

It's been more than 20 years since julia roberts was just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her in notting hill ..

Are Will Thacker and Anna Scott still together nearly 25 years later? In the end, did their separate worlds manage to mesh for the long run?

Let's just say yes, totally. Plus, as you remember from the end of Notting Hill , they have at least one child together. But their ultimate compatibility isn't even the most pressing question!

It's Will's shop, The Travel Book Co., that we're worried about, to be honest. Is there any way that his little store on Portobello Road has survived as independent booksellers are shuttering their doors right and left? Did he expand to online sales or remain a brick-and-mortar traditionalist, still selling only  travel books? We'd certainly like to think that, especially with Anna pulling in $15 million a picture, the TBC lives on.

In real life, it does and it doesn't (more on that in a bit), but the matter at hand is that May 28 marks 24 years since Hugh Grant  and Julia Roberts  bumbled their way into each other's hearts as bookshop owner Will and Hollywood star Anna in the hit 1999 romantic comedy  Notting Hill , directed by Roger Michell and written by Richard Curtis , who would go on to direct the other movie you watch every time it's on, too, Love Actually .

Notting Hill was a smash, making almost $364 million at the box office worldwide and becoming the year's top-grossing British film.

"When I was lying sleepless at nights," Curtis told E! News in 1999, explaining how he dreamed up one of the key elements of the story, "I would sometimes think what it would be like if I turned up at my friends' house where I used to have dinner once a week with, as it were, the most famous person in the world, or who was the most famous at that time, Madonna  or Princess Diana   or Kylie Minogue ."

"And it sort of sprung from there," he continued, "I used to think through the scenario of how my friends would react, who would try and be cool, who would fail to be cool, how you'd get through dinner, what they'd say to you afterwards and…so, that was the starting point."

That's also easily one of the best parts of the movie, Anna dining with Will's "normal" but endlessly sweet and funny inner circle. Roberts, for one, didn't think the premise was so far-fetched.

"I think it could happen," she told E! News at the film's press junket, "because I believe in the idea that we are all looking for someone who brings out the best in us. And I think that the job or position they hold in life, it's not even secondary. It's third-dary, it's fourth-dary, you know, and I think that so many other things come before that. And I say this also as a person who has a boyfriend that's an actor—and he's a very good actor, but I could name a dozen things about him that are incredibly appealing and raise the quality of my life that come before his talent."

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At the time she was dating Benjamin Bratt . They broke up in 2001, and little did Roberts know that she would eventually fall madly in love with a non-famous person, cameraman and photography director  Danny Moder .

Like all the best romances, Notting Hill  still holds up—both the film and the charming destination that served as its setting. So here are 21  more secrets about the film's stars—the human ones and the enviable real estate.

The whole Notting Hill neighborhood, while already increasingly trendy when the film was shot, became, as Hugh Grant put it, "a hell of a lot trendier" once the movie came out.

The house on Westbourne Park Road that boasted the blue door that served as the front door to Will's flat used to be owned by Richard Curtis —and of course it became a pilgrimage site for the movie's fans.

In fact, so many people scrawled their own autograph on the door, it was eventually removed and auctioned off at Christie's, but another blue door lives on in its place. (The new owner was nice enough to paint it blue.)

Meanwhile, the inside of Will's flat was a studio set because the actual interior of Curtis' home—a converted chapel—was actually quite grand, boasting a courtyard garden and a 1,000-square-foot reception room. And minus some exterior shots, most of the movie was shot on a meticulously built set about an hour away from the actual Notting Hill.

The Travel Book Co. doesn't actually exist at 142 Portobello Road as it does in the film, but it's there in spirit. When the film was shot, Nicholls Antique Arcade was in the spot, and it was  succeeded by a furniture store called Gong. Now, Notting Hill Gift Shop is there, identifiable by its big blue awning—and a sign reading The Travel Book Shop.

Because they  know that's why you're buying a keychain there.

A store called The Travel Bookshop did exist for years on Blenheim Crescent around the corner, according to TripSavvy  (which has mapped out a whole Notting Hill walking tour). It closed in 2011 but The Notting Hill Bookshop stands there today.

They probably  do have some Dickens, or the new John Grisham.

Some of the scenes of Anna walking red carpets, flashing her famous smile at the cameras and attending award shows is real Julia Roberts footage "from years gone by," she shared with E! News in 1999, as well as footage shot at the 1998 BAFTA Awards, which in real life she attended with her  My Best Friend's Wedding  co-star Rupert Everett .

Overall, the scenes that illustrate what a huge star her character is are a "hodgepodge" of her life and Anna's, Roberts said.

What was  not real, Roberts was thankful for, was the scene in which Anna opens the door of Will's flat to countless paparazzi snapping away—surrounded by, in what Grant called a "Fellini moment," dozens of actual paparazzi photographing the fake photographers.

"It's always fun if you can exaggerate a situation, thank goodness," Roberts said. "I've never opened a door and seen 500 people...so yeah, it's certainly enjoyable."

Curtis found the opening montage largely lifted from Roberts' actual movie-star life more startling: "We said, 'F--k!  That's  who we're dealing with,'" he told  Vanity Fair   in 1999. "It's very easy when you're dealing with a very reasonable, lovely, relaxed, 30-year-old woman to forget that that's also the Julia Roberts who, for 10 years beforehand, you could never have gotten within a hundred yards of. It was a freakish moment when we realized that the woman we were dealing with was actually both those things: this relaxed person and this untouchable, iconic object of which there are so many photographs."

Not only did Grant (and Everett, for that matter) audition to play the titular Bard in  Shakespeare in Love , which came out in 1998 and won the Oscar for Best Picture the following year, Roberts was attached to play Violet, opposite Daniel Day-Lewis —but he ultimately didn't sign on, so Roberts left.

All's well that ends well, at least. Gwyneth Paltrow won an Oscar and enjoyed sizzling chemistry with  Joseph Fiennes , and Roberts won her Oscar two years later, for  Erin Brockovich .

Grant recalled his  Shakespeare in Love audition opposite Roberts to Vanity Fair : "I was a very, very unemployed, pathetic actor at the time. I remember being so intimidated by the fact that she was in the room that I got myself in a sort of kerfuffle and missed the chair when I sat down. I sat on the  arm  of the chair, then had that very awkward inner debate about whether to say, 'Actually, I've missed the chair,' or to pretend that I was really a slightly quirky sort of character who  always  sits on the arm."

When it came time to make Notting Hill , Grant still used the word "fear" to characterize how he initially felt, explaining, "I think the emotion you have when you first meet someone tends to linger with you. I was all ready to be scared, and I must say, the fear never quite left me."

Roberts didn't go unaffected by the Hugh Grantness of it all, either, however.

"I was actually intimidated by Hugh and I think also being the only American in the movie," she told E! News. "Everybody just sounds smarter than you. English people can say the dumbest things and make it sound so charming and fabulously interesting, and once I was able to do that and just realize I'm the only nasally sounding Yank of the bunch, then I was able to sort of relax."

"I'm just sort of drifting along in this quite cozy life in this curious backwater of London, and all of a sudden the most famous and beautiful film actress in the world walks into my shop… and romance ensues," Grant told E! News in 1999.

So...it sounds as though Roberts walked in.

Well, Roberts obviously saw the parallels, and it turns out she was surprised by how different she was from Anna.

"I think going into it I sort of thought, well, I'll know how to do this sort of thing, but the situations become quite specific," she told E! News. "And therefore, the choices that she makes are quite specific within that, and I didn't always agree with her choices—and I think because we share a career, I just sort of assumed that we'd make all the same choices.

"But we didn't . I had to really remove my own hubris, or judgment or whatever it is in order to play her honestly."

Roberts clarified what, exactly, bothered her about the character to  Vanity Fair : the fact that Anna had a tumultuous relationship with the media because, before she was famous, she had posed nude and the photos had gotten out.

"I didn't agree with what she did, first of all," Roberts told the magazine in 1999. "Didn't agree with how she got into this mess—I would never have been in that situation. Didn't agree with the way she was dealing with it...Didn't agree with the way she was reacting to it. Didn't agree with  any  of that stuff."

Roberts originally didn't have any interest in playing a movie star.

"How boring," she recalled telling her agent. "How tedious—what a  stupid  thing for me to do." 

It was only after she read Curtis' script—which she only read  because it was a script by  Four Weddings and a Funeral ,  Blackadder and  Spitting Image scribe—that she decided, " F--k,  I'm gonna do this movie."

According to Grant, the movie is inspired by a true story!

"This is a story he won't admit to," the actor told E!, "but he's told me in a drunken moment. A friend of his, an ordinary, normal guy, was in Harrods one day and met a very famous woman, and ended up taking her back to his flat in Notting Hill—and all kinds of nonsense ensued. And they used to meet up, whenever she came to London their affair would reactivate itself—and that was the genesis of his script. But he's so scared of people finding out who this very famous person was that he won't tell anyone that story."

Will would have really hurt himself if he'd made it over the gate to sneak into the private Rosemead Gardens—apparently it's quite the drop to the other side. Instead, he stumbled, leading him to charmingly exclaim, "Whoopsie-daisies!" much to Anna's amusement.

Meanwhile, they couldn't have even waltzed in during the daytime: that particular garden is one of several in the area owned by an estate and maintained by local residents, who are the only ones with keys.

That's  The Newsroom 's Emily Mortimer playing "The Perfect Girl" (as she's credited) who goes out with Will after he Anna don't initially work out. And aside from the awkwardness of knowing your one scene amounts to your character being rejected, the actress showed up with hives, thanks to an allergic reaction from the fabric of a suit she had picked up in a thrift shop.

"It was a nightmare," Mortimer recalled on PeopleTV's  Couch Surfing in 2018. "Every time I got nervous— which you do when you're acting—I got hives and my face... well, one side of it you can still see is sort of chipmunk-like."

But surely Grant, with all his charming ways, eased the tension?

"No, no," Mortimer winced, "everybody was really embarrassed! It was very awkward. It was like, 'who is this girl who's come—she's just got one scene and she's making such a meal of it,' and nobody would talk to me. It was weird.  I  was weird, and I was also really shy and mortified."

"She liked to throw fruit at me during takes, or just before takes, just to put me off," Grant revealed to E! News.

Roberts concurred. "I threw a lot of fruit at him, to the point where we became a fruitless environment."

Roberts apparently knew not to give it 110 percent during rehearsal, so as to remain fresh for the real deal, "whereas I'd be acting my little heart out, trying to impress the crew," Grant told E! News. So "when the cameras roll, she's great and I'm boring."

Playing Will's unwashed slacker flatmate Spike was a breakthrough turn for Rhys Ifans , most notably when the Welsh actor happily flexes and shows off his "nice, firm buttocks" to the paparazzi waiting outside the front door for Anna.

But though Spike can't help but charm as well as amuse, Ifans apparently went quite method with the role.

Asked if it was true he didn't bathe or brush his teeth during filming, he told  Interview  in 2011 , "We were filming in Shepardston Studios, and I couldn't bear the journey all the way from London every day, so I got a tent and I camped in a campsite nearby. Every morning this big limo would come and pick me up at the campsite, to the utter bafflement of the campsite owner. He thought I was some kind of eccentric millionaire."

And, "I would bathe occasionally, when I remembered to."

Not helping was the fact that the sneakers the costume department found for him had a "smell that emanated from the dark depths" that "brought a tear to one's eye," he told E! News in 1999. "By the end of the day, the rest of the cast insisted that these trainers were taken away and cleansed—exorcised!"

But while he's got the air of the rogue about him, director Roger Michell (who before Notting Hill directed Ifans onstage in Under Milk Wood ) described him to the  Telegraph in 2006 as full of pleasant contradictions: "He's gawky, yet graceful. He's smelly and Welsh and yet he's handsome and winning." Certainly winning enough to work with Ifans again on the 2004 film  Enduring Love and direct him in a 2017 West End production of  Mood Music .

Ifans told the BBC in 2018 that he'd "rather throw a brick than sign a petition," but he found a happy medium: after being turned on to the cause after playing a homeless man in the one-man play Protest Song in 2013, he volunteered to be an ambassador for the Welsh charity Shelter Cymru , which aids the homeless.

London's posh Ritz Hotel very rarely allows filming inside its 5-star walls, but access was granted to be the setting for Anna's press junket, featuring Will pretending to be a reporter from  Horse & Hound .

Alas, there were no animals in Anna's new movie, set in space. Or in her next one, taking place on a submarine.

Mischa Barton played "12-year-old Actress" in what wasn't her first movie ever, but the first of two in one year that millions of people saw.

The other?  The Sixth Sense , which came out that August. Barton is Kyra, the girl under the bed who scares the hell out of Haley Joel Osment .

"12-year-old Actress," meanwhile, was co-starring with Anna Scott in the big-budget sci-fi flick  Helix— her 22nd movie, as she told Will of  Horse & Hound .

Alec Baldwin has been in a trillion movies, including  Notting Hill , where he showed up briefly to play Anna's boyfriend Jeff (plot twist!), who shows up to surprise her in London but by the end of the movie, in absentia, is rumored to have quickly moved on—and "most rumors about Jeff turn out to be true."

"By the late '90s, I embarked on a string of leading and supporting roles that gained little attention," Baldwin recalled in his 2017 memoir  Nevertheless , "though each offered its own charms and gratifications."

Notting Hill 's big selling point? "Where, for just one day, on a set in London, I got to breathe the same air as the remarkable Julia Roberts."

The two were supposed to work together again on Ryan Murphy 's 2014 HBO movie  The Normal Heart , but Baldwin left the project. He can rest assured that Roberts is still a fan, though: In 2017 she said on EW Radio  that she had never hosted  Saturday Night Live because she was "too scared," but "I would do it with Alec, if we could be comedy partners just doing skits."

Sadly, Emma Chambers , who played Will's quirky sister Honey (seen here with Hugh Bonneville , the future Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey , playing oblivious stockbroker Bernie), died in 2018 at the age of 53.

Grant posted a rare personal tweet , writing, "Emma Chambers was a hilarious and very warm person and of course a brilliant actress. Very sad news."

James Dreyfus , who played the group's happily married friend Martin, tweeted , "RIP the wonderful and talented Emma Chambers. Unique,& unspeakably funny. Too young. Thoughts with her family."

Curtis, who also wrote for Chambers' other best-known role, Alice Tinker in the BBC sitcom  The Vicar of Dibley ,  told the  Telegraph , "We're obviously terribly sad. She really was a great, great comedy performer—and a very fine actress. And a tender, sweet, funny, unusual, loving human being. In my work she worked opposite Dawn French and Julia Roberts—and was more than the measure of the pair of them."

Film producer  J onathan Sothcott tweeted , "RIP the wonderful Emma Chambers - best known for The Vicar of Dibley but also stole every scene in Notting Hill. Only 53."

Don't worry, the line that left a bad taste in the star's mouth was  not "I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her."

That would be tragic, wouldn't it?

No, the one Roberts wasn't a fan of was when, still tucked in bed, Anna tells Will, quoting Rita Hayworth in 1946's  Gilda , "'They go to bed with Gilda, they wake up with me.'"

"I hate to say anything negative about what Richard wrote, because he's a genius, but I  hated  saying that line," she told Vanity Fair . "To me, it was nails on a chalkboard. I don't really believe  any  of that."

Turns out we're not the only ones who wondered how it all turned out for Anna and Will.

"I'm going to talk to Julia about it sometime soon," Curtis  told the  Mirror in April 2019 about the possibility of getting the band back together, as he did for  Love, Actually  and  Four Weddings and a Funeral  mini-sequels, both for Britain's Red Nose Day, and both of which were rapturously received.

Roger Michell sounded more skeptical about the prospect, telling  Her in 2018 , "I just don't know what the story could possibly be. Are Will and Anna still living in Notting Hill with a load of grumpy teenagers running around? I just don't know. In love stories, you have to split up and then get back together again. If you did that with a middle-aged couple living in Notting Hill, it would feel contrived."

Roberts told  ET   in October 2018 that these days she would be more likely to play "the parents of the people that are rom-com-ing."

"There came a point in my career where people thought I had turned on romantic comedies, which I love...I love to be in them, I love to watch them. But sometimes, they just don't work at a certain point of life experience." It's not about age, per se, "it's just about what people know that you know."

Well,  we  know that we're here for it.

( Originally published May 13, 2019, at 3 a.m. PT )

Why Maria Georgas Walked Away From Being the Next Bachelorette

Melissa mccarthy reacts to barbra streisand asking if she uses ozempic.

In sparkling rom-com 'The Idea of You,' famous young singer and not-famous older woman click

Anne hathaway and nicholas galitzine make a dazzling duo in prime video’s love story with just the right amount of cringe..

Boy-band superstar Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine) meets a fan’s mom, Solène (Anne Hathaway), at Coachella and strikes up an unexpected romance in “The Idea of You.”

Prime Video

One supposes it would have been TOO spot-on to have the leads in the sparkling and delightful and utterly fantastical “The Idea of You” actually walk hand-in-hand through a certain district in West London, but the similarities between this gem and the 1999 classic “Notting Hill” are inescapable — albeit with a gender reversal.

In “Notting Hill,” Julia Roberts’ Anna Scott is a superstar American actress who falls in love with the unassuming and anonymous Brit William Thacker (Hugh Grant), who runs a small travel bookstore and has an apartment with a blue door. Complications ensue, in large part due to the paparazzi and the tabloids hounding their every move.

In “The Idea of You,” Nicholas Galitzine’s Hayes Campbell is a British pop star who falls in love with the unassuming and anonymous American Solène Marchand (Anne Hathaway), who runs a small art gallery with a red-framed door in L.A.'s hipster Silver Lake neighborhood. Complications ensue, in large part due to the paparazzi and the tabloids hounding their every move.

It was a magical formula in 1999 and it’s a magical formula 25 years later, with Hathaway looking every inch the gorgeous movie star and giving one of her most endearing performances, and Galitzine taking a borderline ridiculous role and making something genuine out of it. Adapting the best-selling 2017 novel of the same name by Robinne Lee, director Michael Showalter (who co-wrote the screenplay with Jennifer Westfeldt) continues to build on an impressive resume that includes “The Big Sick,” “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” and “Spoiler Alert.”

Even though “The Idea of You” adheres to many of the time-tested elements of the Rom-Com Playbook, the premise is a bit tricky and could have turned cringey in the wrong hands. Instead, the potential “ick” factor is played for just the right combination of cringe humor and legit insights about how even in 2024, we tend to be more shocked and judgmental about age-gap romances when it’s the woman who is older. Stop that, us!

Hathaway’s Solène is a 40-year-old single mother who is still reeling from her divorce from cheating husband Daniel (Reid Scott), though the guy is so smarmy we instantly feel she’s better off without him. When Daniel flakes out at the last minute on taking their 16-year-old daughter Izzy (Ella Rubin, who looks quite a bit like “The Princess Diaries”-era Anne Hathaway), and Izzy’s friends to Coachella to see their childhood crush band August Moon, it’s up to Solène to literally take the wheel. (It’s a sign of Daniel’s absentee cluelessness that he doesn’t realize Izzy has moved on from having posters of August Moon on her bedroom wall. The band you love at 11 is rarely the band you love when you’re 16.)

Backstage at Coachella, we get that obligatory Meet Cute between Solène and Hayes, who is 24 and looks like an AI version of a pop star, from the mussed-up hair and the perfect cheekbones to the random tattoos and the aw-shucks stage presence. (There’s a decidedly One Direction vibe to August Moon, and Galitzine does an admirable job of looking and sounding like a pop star, with the production design team re-creating Coachella in a field in Georgia.)

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Solène wisely resists Hayes’ initial advances, and that seems like a good idea — not just because of the age difference and the fact that Hayes is an international sex symbol, but maybe more so because she was emotionally T-boned by Daniel’s infidelity and isn’t so sure the idea of love can grow into lasting commitment. Still, with Izzy conveniently away for the summer at camp, Solène decides she deserves an adventure, and that’s our cue for a medley of scenes with Solène accompanying Hayes and the band on a European tour, with the two of them tearing up hotel rooms from Rome to Paris to Barcelona along the way.

Once the press discovers the relationship, all madness breaks loose, and you can probably guess what happens in the subsequent scenes. “The Idea of You” is at its best during some of the quieter moments, as when Solène tells Hayes how she learned Daniel was unfaithful, and when Hayes recounts how he was thrilled at the prospect of meeting his musical idol and perhaps even collaborating with him, only to learn he had been hired to make an appearance at the birthday party for the star’s daughter.

Hayes’ fear is he’ll become a some-hits wonder punchline; Solène’s fear is this romance will turn HER into a punchline. We’re so glad they’re in a rom-com, as that means there’s a fighting chance for a reasonably plausible fairy-tale ending.