For the love of Notting Hill

The owners of the bookshop that inspired the film Notting Hill say they expect to be inundated with requests from couples to get engaged in the shop ahead of the film’s 20th anniversary.

Tourists from around the world visit the shop in London and the proprietors hope to be “chock-a-block” next year — 20 years after the 1999 film in which Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts’s characters fall in love after meeting in a travel book shop owned by Grant’s character.

James Malin, who has owned The Notting Hill Bookshop with his brother Howard Malin for 10 years, said they are delighted by the prospect.

He said: “We have had several approaches during the past few years and there are other people that we are not aware of, like an American couple we didn’t find out about until they returned for their anniversary.”

The biggest trend they see is the number of international fans choosing London for their engagement.

James added: “They come from all over. It’s like a pilgrimage — we’ve had people from Australia, the United States, China and Japan. We even had a young Chinese couple who were here on their honeymoon and dressed up again in their wedding outfits to walk around with a professional photographer, and a young Chinese couple who met in our shop and came back six months later to tell us they were still together.”

A German man from Eppstein proposed in the back section of the shop. Having watched the film together as teens inspired Marius Koppen, 32, to hide an engagement ring inside a Harry Potter book for his then-girlfriend, Angela, in September 2015.

He said: “I wanted to do something special for her. I thought about what connected us over the years.”

With the film’s 20th anniversary fast approaching, the Malin brothers are expecting to be busy. “I just hope that it is chock-a-block all week,” said James. “Tourists always have a smile on their face, it is just a great space to work in.”