Two things to sort before you walk out the door.
1. Wes Anderson tickets. Book at
bookings.designmuseum.org. “Adult” means
16 and over, so Fleetwood is an adult ticket:
3 × Adult = £78 total (£26 each — the widget shows the party total per slot, not the per-head price). Card only.
Take a slot before 13:30 — the museum closes at 17:00 on a Monday and this is a 700-object show; a late entry means being herded out and it eats the rest of the day.
2. BaySixty6 needs free membership + a signed waiver. Fleetwood is under 18, so a parent or guardian must sign it. Do it online now at
baysixty6.com/registration and skip the queue later.
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Getting there: Baker Street → High Street Kensington on the Circle line, westbound — direct, no changes, about 15 minutes. Then a 5-minute walk west along Kensington High Street.
10:00 – 12:00 · The anchor
Wes Anderson: The Archives
Design Museum, 224–238 Kensington High St, W8 6AG
Mon 10:00–17:00
£26 adult · £78 for three · card only
Over 700 objects from his personal archive: the candy-pink Grand Budapest Hotel model, the Asteroid City vending machines, Margot Tenenbaum’s Fendi fur, the original Life Aquatic stop-motion puppets, Mr Fox in his corduroy suit. Get the earliest slot you can — the morning is the empty one, and the museum closes at 5 on a Monday.
Look upThe building is the old Commonwealth Institute — that swooping roof is a 1960s hyperbolic paraboloid, so odd it’s Grade II* listed. It is, accidentally, the most Wes Anderson building in London: perfectly symmetrical, faintly absurd, slightly sad.
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4-minute walk east back along Kensington High Street, toward the station. It’s on your left.
12:05 – 12:45
Japan House London Free
101–111 Kensington High St, W8 5SA
Mon–Sat 10:00–20:00
Free entry
A Japanese government cultural house disguised as a shop: rotating design exhibitions downstairs, and a ground floor of impossibly well-made objects — knives, ceramics, paper, tools. No ticket, no tourists, and the most design-literate 40 minutes in this postcode. Fleetwood will find something here.
12:45 – 1:45 · Lunch
Kensington — keep it quick
Kensington High St / Kensington Church St
Fuel, not an event. Plenty on the High Street; Kensington Church Street (north from the station) has the nicer pubs. The good eating today is dinner in Notting Hill — don’t blow the appetite here.
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10-minute walk north. From the Design Museum, head up Holland Walk — the leafy footpath running along the east edge of the park. Enter the park and follow signs to the Kyoto Garden.
1:45 – 2:45
Holland Park & the Kyoto Garden Free
Holland Park, W8 6LU
Open 7:30am to dusk
Free
A Japanese garden gifted by the city of Kyoto, hidden inside a park most visitors never enter: koi pond, tiered waterfall, Japanese maples — and free-roaming peacocks that will walk right up to you and fan out.
Weird bonusIts odd neighbour: Holland House, a Jacobean mansion gutted by the Blitz. The surviving arcade is now an open-air opera stage. A bombed mansion, a Kyoto garden, and a peacock — ten minutes from a Wes Anderson exhibit. The day is writing itself.
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To Portobello (~20 min). Walk out the north side of Holland Park to Holland Park Ave and take the bus 94 or 148 to Notting Hill Gate (2 stops), or walk it in 12 minutes. From Notting Hill Gate, walk north up Pembridge Road → Portobello Road — about 10 minutes, and the whole street is the point.
3:00 – 4:15 · The dig
Portobello Road — records for the DJ
Portobello Rd & Talbot Rd, W11
Shops ~10:00–18:00
Monday = no market crowds
Monday is the secret. The antiques market is a weekend circus; today the street is just a street, with the good shops open and empty.
- Honest Jon’s — 278 Portobello Rd. Open since 1974, co-run as a label with Damon Albarn. Jazz, reggae, African, electronic, house. A serious dig, not a tourist bin.
- Rough Trade West — 130 Talbot Rd. The original Rough Trade, the shop the label grew out of. Small, perfect, still the real thing.
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5-minute walk. From Honest Jon’s, keep going north up Portobello Road, under the concrete flyover, then left onto Acklam Road. You’ll hear it before you see it.
4:30 – 6:00 · The skate stop
BaySixty6 — under the Westway
Bay 65–66 Acklam Rd, W10 5YU
Open 12:00–21:00 daily
£8 day session · board hire £5
A bowl, a street/park section, and a beginners area — built directly beneath the A40 flyover, so it’s covered: rain literally does not matter here. Sessions run in blocks (12–2, 2–4, 4–6, then evening 6–9 at £10), so the 4–6 slot is your target.
- Register free online first — every user needs a basic membership, and under-18s need the waiver signed by a parent/guardian. Do it before you arrive.
- Helmets mandatory under 16 (Fleetwood’s exempt at 17, but pads are still smart on unfamiliar concrete).
Why this oneNot a municipal park — a legendary 1997 concrete park in the guts of a motorway, the place that built West London skate culture. Ballardian, loud, completely authentic. There’s a café and a viewing area for the parents, and the sound of traffic thundering over a bowl is its own strange pleasure.
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Back down Portobello Road, 5–10 minutes, into the restaurants around Westbourne Grove and the Electric.
6:30pm · Payoff
Dinner in Notting Hill
Portobello Rd / Westbourne Grove, W11Quiet Monday — walk-ins work
You’re standing in one of London’s best eating neighbourhoods on its quietest night, which means no booking required. Walk Westbourne Grove and pick on the street rather than off a list.
The capperThe Electric Cinema, 191 Portobello Rd — a 1910 picture house where you watch from leather armchairs with footstools, and the front row is six double beds with cashmere blankets. There’s a bar; they bring the drink to your bed. After a day of Wes Anderson, ending in a velvet-and-brass Edwardian cinema is the only correct move. Check tonight’s listing over dinner and book on your phone.
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Home: Ladbroke Grove station (5 min from Portobello) → Baker Street on the Hammersmith & City or Circle line, eastbound — direct, no changes, about 15 minutes.