Is This The End Of Portobello Road As We Know It...?

The Evening Standard notes a potential harbinger of commercial conformity on Portobello Road, as chain retailer AllSaints opens a new store on that most ramshackle of markets. The 'street where the riches of ages are sold' is a place of barrows and stalls, of small independent shops selling 'anything and everything a chap can unload'. It is a linear circus where tedious dance numbers assemble at the drop of a hat (according to this documentary). Can it absorb large stores and keep its character? Did it lose its ragamuffin way years ago, with the opening of Starbucks, Tesco Metro and American Apparel (oh the irony, for anyone who's noticed our sidebar these past few weeks)? Discuss.