At this time, the main inhabitants of the Notting Hill area were pigs; there were in fact three times as many pigs living there as there were people. Small wonder people tried to get into more desirable areas. The area was also known for the amount of pottery that was made there, and memories of the area's past can still be seen today ? Pottery Lane is just around the corner.

Thankfully things have changed, and if you want to buy property in Notting Hill today, you will be buying into a much more attractive area. When you compare it to the Notting Hill of days gone by, you'll find very few similarities between the two. Thanks to the hard work of the residents who live there, the area has been transformed from a place to avoid to a place to be seen.

In the past, many of the large were on offer because people could no longer afford them. Those that could afford to do so moved to more desirable areas such as Mayfair.

In order to make Notting Hill more accessible, these large dwellings were transformed into flats for sale in the area, and even today these make attractive places to live for the artistic and famous people who frequent the area.

But if you were to take a look at a sketch of the area back in the 1800s, you would be forgiven for thinking you were looking at a completely different area. Even some sixty years ago, Notting Hill properties were totally different to how they are today. This area has certainly gone through several huge changes over the last couple of hundred years. It could even be argued that it has reinvented itself more than once.

Nowadays it has replaced the pigs with the stunning Portobello Road market, and the dank, dark and dangerous surroundings are long since a thing of the past. Apart from some of the road names, however, there are still reminders of how Notting Hill used to be in the past. One of the large kilns used to make bricks in the 1800s still stands, and has been transformed into an attractive and unusual house.

So the next time you visit Notting Hill, watch out for the signs that reveal its unsavoury past ? a complete contrast to what it has become today.