It can sometimes be a bittersweet feeling to revisit a place you once lived or frequented but when you’ve travelled from the opposite side of the world, how can you not? Sure, it’s always going to be a different experience when you are older, and places represented a different, younger time in your life.

Change is inevitable and it’s been thirty years since I lived in London but it’s interesting to observe how some things change, others stay the same and some go full circle.

When Albert and I were here two years ago we stayed on Old Street, in an area that back in the eighties wasn’t a top five pick for tourists and visitors. Fast forward 30 years, the area is now a hub for tech companies and is full of trendy bars, nightclubs and eateries. Seriously, there’s was even a pop-up restaurant and bar in the middle of the Old Street roundabout.

And to think I saw it on Carnaby Street

One area that has undergone a few transformations is the ever popular Carnaby Street. It originated as a centre for a new wave of British designers that included Vivienne Westwood and Mary Quant, and during the Mod scene, it was ‘the’ place to be seen.

When I first arrived in London Carnaby Street featured more of a punk vibe and was the place to buy your Dr Martens, which were pretty cheap back then. By the time I left to head home Carnaby Street had disintegrated into a street of tacky souvenir and novelty shops catering to the ever-increasing tourist trade. It was nice to go back this time to see it had transformed once again, lined now with popular high street brands and chain stores. Not quite the boutique trade that the street was founded on but certainly a nod to its former glory.

Portobello Road and Market

In 2015 Portobello Market celebrated 150-years since its origins in the 1860s as a humble country lane where farmers sold produce to locals.

Portobello Road is now famous for being the largest antiques market in the world, with venders and shop owners peddling everything from stamps to vintage cameras, porcelain, art and antique furniture. It is also home to the Electric Cinema, one of the UK’s oldest working movie theatres.

From produce to antiques the evolution of Portobello Market presents a fusion of individual markets selling food, collectables, bric-a-brac, fresh fruit and vegetables, new and vintage clothing. Open every day except Sunday, the main market day is on Saturday.

Living less than 100 metres from Portobello Road, the market was a huge part of my London life, many an hour (yes, ok the odd day) was spent in the Earl of Lonsdale Pub on the corner of Portobello Road and Westbourne Grove.

Visiting the pub two years ago I was disillusioned by how small it felt and the once large open front bar was now a very odd space. Around the bar was a series of interconnecting compartments that I’ve since discovered are a reproduction of the original Victorian plans the owners incorporated as part of a refit.

Nice ode to the pub’s history but not very practical, anyone over three foot needs to duck to get through the weird little doors and you need to pass through one ‘snug’ to get to another.

Bayswater and Queensway

I’ve visited London three times this year and each time I’ve stayed in the Bayswater, Notting Hill Gate area. Accommodation here varies from four-star hotels to self-contained or semi-contained rooms with shared amenities and shared everything in dormitories that sleep from two to 20 people.

The facades of fake houses at numbers 23 and 24 Leinster Gardens, are still there with blackened windows, hiding an open section of the Underground between Paddington and Bayswater.

The iconic Whitley’s once touted as the largest shop in the world, is no more, closing its doors in November last year, after more than 100 years of trade. Queensway is now lined with tourist shops, fast food restaurants and those novelty shops that once lined Carnaby Street, appear to have all relocated here.

Back when I lived local, Queensway had a reputation as a red-light district. I know this from one particular experience best left for another post, but as the cheap tourist go-to it has become, it struck me as far seedier now than it ever was back then.

Rubbish is strewn about the street and beggars congregate outside the shops and tube stations in the hope that a benevolent tourist can spare some change. The smell of dope is everywhere.

That said, the area works as tourist central because of its close proximity to Hyde Park, Kensington Palace, Portobello Markets and the tube stations that provide easy access to many other attractions via the Central, District and Circle Lines.

Three stops on the tube and you are at South Kensington where the Science, Natural History and Victoria & Albert museums are located. South Kensington has some very cool little bars and eateries. The entrance to the station is impressive in its own right.

In my case, I even discovered a few things I hadn’t known about while living here because let’s face it, you don’t often play tourist where you live and as a younger me, it was probably more about the party then exploring my surrounds.

Point in case, many a time was spent at Hyde Park playing touch with the flatmates, going to food and wine festivals or other events – I  never knew Kensington Palace was right there! Not that I’m particularly interested in the British royalty or where they choose to live but, nice digs and when you walk around the corner onto Kensington Palace Gardens, the street is full of beautiful old residences and impressive buildings housing a number of foreign consulates.

To think this was there all the time, only about a 15-minute walk from where I lived!