Marketing Strategy

With over 40 open air markets, London is a great city for anyone who loves to wander, brows, and shop. From organic produce to designs by emerging artists, high-end antiques, and bric-a-brac, all sorts of treasures are just waiting to be found.

Among the city's – and the world's – most famous markets, Portobello Market rambles along the two miles of Portobello Road in Notting Hill. It began as a fruit and vegetable market in the early 1900s. Then, antique dealers and sellers of all things vintage started setting up businesses in the 1960s. Shops are opened six day a week, but the real action is on Saturday mornings when vendors also open stalls on the streets.

Visited by locals and tourists alike, the market is big, crowded, and packed to the gills will all sorts of goodies. To navigate more then one block in a morning, we needed to focus our adventure this Saturday. Our criteria: vintage items (excluding clothing) that were small enough to pack in a suitcase.

Skipping furniture, fixtures, and frocks, we still only managed too make it half way though the market before our stamina and budgets gave out. Prized loot: antique wall paper samples, a silver plated toast caddy, sailor trading cards, and a glass eyeball that we nicknamed "The London Eye."