As you know, we occasionally travel outside our beloved city to show you other places in the country, but now we’ve gone a little further to take you to one of the best-kept secrets of England’s capital, to Little Portugal, a small, quiet London neighborhood where you can kill your homesickness.
If you live in London, there isn’t a day that goes by that you don’t feel like going back to Portugal. The lack of sun (London is almost always “gray”), our good food and, above all, hearing the Portuguese language, must be what you miss most.
Those nostalgic days are over! Although it’s not quite the same as going back to our country, you don’t have to take a flight back to Portugal to miss what is typically and traditionally Portuguese: just take the tube to Stockwell or Vauxhall, where you’ll hear our accents and enjoy some of our delicacies, especially pastel de nata and, of course, codfish dishes.
The story of “Little Portugal”
The nerve center of the Portuguese community throughout the UK is in this simple and lovable London neighborhood, along South Lambeth Road.
And we’re not talking about a “manufactured” tourist attraction; Little Portugal is a neighborhood full of life, built over 50 years ago by Portuguese families, many of whom arrived in the country in the 60s and 70s.
Today it has around 30,000 Portuguese, making it the largest Portuguese community in Her Majesty’s country.
Unlike many other neighborhoods of its kind in London, “Pequeno Portugal” was born out of a real need in the community, and what started out as a meeting place for emigrants looking for work and a sense of home, quickly solidified itself as a vibrant area in this part of the English capital.
Today, most of the establishments are family-run, with businesses that have been passed down from generation to generation, which has maintained a standard of quality and authenticity that is very difficult to replicate.
The flavors and aromas of Portugal
Visiting “Little Portugal” is, above all, a sensory experience: the smell of freshly-brewed coffee hangs in the air, and when you enter a pastry shop, in addition to what you hear, a dominant Portuguese sound, the aromas of the cakes, especially the pastéis de nata, are intoxicating.
Best of all, the prices of these products here are a small fraction of what you’ll find in other areas of London.
In the grocery stores (or delis) you’ll also find real national treasures, from specific ingredients such as chouriços or bottles of Sumol, as well as the famous Portuguese wine, of course,
And when you visit one of the restaurants located here, freshly grilled seafood and our “King” codfish are dishes of the house, every day.
The future of “Little Portugal”
“Little Portugal” is avowedly a nostalgic and commercial district, its function as a “resting place” for new Portuguese emigrants having ceased many years ago and now spread to more areas of London.
So it’s only natural that this area will lose its “Portugueseness” over the years, becoming more of a cultural mark of the London capital itself, in a kind of gentrification for new, wealthier residents or for “nostalgic tourists”.
There’s no doubt about one thing: “Little Portugal” is still a must-see, whether you’re a Portuguese making a life in London or a Brit curious to discover a new culture without leaving home.
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