‘A sign of how we live now’: friction in Notting Hill over counter-terrorism barriers

Visitors negotiate one of the painted anti-terror concrete blocks installed in Portobello Road, London. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

If Richard Curtis had shot his romcom classic Notting Hill over the past month, things might have turned out very differently.

Julia Roberts would have had to stumble past huge concrete blocks while losing the hand of her British sweetheart and Hugh Grant might have missed his departing lover as he struggled to exit the area in an overstuffed Peugeot 406.