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60 years ago in Portobello pop history, Mick Jagger and John Lennon went shopping down Portobello Road with Chrissie Shrimpton and Cynthia Lennon. Mick got a military jacket from I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet at number 293, sold to him by the shop manager Robert H Orbach, which he wore on ‘Ready Steady Go’ while singing ‘Paint It Black’. Robert Orbach recalled: “I’m sitting there one morning and in walked John Lennon, Mick Jagger and Cynthia Lennon. I didn’t know whether I was hallucinating but it was real.” Jagger bought a red Grenadier Guards drummer’s jacket, which he wore when the Stones performed their number 1 hit ‘Paint It Black’ on 'Ready Steady Go'. Following which, Orbach says: “The next morning there was a line of about a hundred people wanting to buy this tunic, and we sold everything in the shop by lunchtime.”
‘London’s first secondhand boutique’, specialising in ‘kinky, period and military gear’, began trading at Annie’s Antiques at 84 Portobello Road in 1965. The first I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet shop was opened by John Paul and Ian Fisk at 293 in February 1966. In Richard Lester’s 'Boutique London', it’s described as ‘a dark and dense space combining 19th century military jackets, fur coats and Victorian junk into one huge nostalgic mix.’ The shop inspired the song ‘I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet’ by the New Vaudeville Band: ‘Oh, Lord Kitchener, what a to do? Everyone is wearing clothes that once belonged to you, if you were alive today I’m sure you would explode if you took a stroll down the Portobello Road.’ Getting it Straight in Notting Hill Gate part 1 1066-1966 and part 2 1966-2026 available for £23 from https://www.portobelloradio.com/.../getting-it-straight.../ US payments@portobelloradio.com See less
