OPINION - The London Question: Are rampaging influencers ruining life for the rest of us?

Yahoo

22-02-2025

Influencers, already everywhere in London anyway, are growing more brazen by the day. What was once a small coterie who haunted restaurants like Sexy Fish in Mayfair has grown into a mass of aspiring social media messiahs willing to go to great lengths for the perfect snap. They pose on people's doorsteps, disturb restaurant diners and have a penchant for filming content in busy Tube stations, leaving the rest of us squinting in the glare of their ring lights.
Notting Hill is famous for its rows of rainbow coloured houses. For passers-by, they're a joy to behold. For residents, they've become a nightmare to live in. 'I'm being driven literally mad,' says Tara, whose once quiet, pastel-hued street has become a hotbed of activity. Her house is baby pink and a favourite backdrop for influencer's photo shoots. 'It can be pouring with rain, it can be snowing, it can be a wind tunnel, and they're still coming. They'll take their coats off in the middle of the rain and stand on my steps, taking turns to photograph each other,' she says.
Tara's street is named in a number of TikTok videos about 'where to find colourful houses' in Notting Hill, which has led to the influx of influencers. 'Last year it was bad, and this year so far it's been impossible,' she says. Although the street is near the bustling Portobello Market, it used to be 'incredibly peaceful' and had very low footfall.
It's not just that the influencers take pictures of each other. Tara is an artist and spends all day weaving tapestries in her living room. Anyone who looks through the window can see her surrounded by tendrils of wire and thread. Many cannot resist taking a snap of the artist at work, no doubt thinking it will be a perfect, authentic snapshot for their Instagram grid. 'Sometimes I've turned around and I've had maybe 15 people opposite, just looking at me and taking photographs of me working.'
While taking a photo of someone through their window without their consent could be deemed an invasion of privacy, Tara's complaints to the council and the police have been met with a shrug. Around 20 times a day, she has to go outside and ask people to stop. 'On the whole they're polite, but sometimes they're really foul and tell me to f*** off.'
What's incredible is the sense of entitlement — it's just massively invasive
Tara, Notting Hill resident
There's the noise, too. 'It's constant,' sighs Tara. 'I like to work in quiet, and hearing people talking outside my door all day drives me mad. I'm thinking of moving — that's how maddening it is.' Tourists looking for photo ops in the area are nothing new: thousands flock to Portobello every weekend, posing outside the Travel Bookshop which featured in the film Notting Hill. But Tara says influencers are far more bold: 'What's incredible is the sense of entitlement — it's just massively invasive.'
This is happening across Notting Hill. One local took to documenting the influencers who ran rampant on his street on TikTok. The videos show people lying across front steps, spraying red flares and letting go of bunches of balloons for the perfect snap.
Residents who live in any of the brightly coloured houses in the area will often open their doors to find an influencer or three posing on their front steps. Peter Lee, a pensioner who lives in a distinctive pink house, said influencers dancing on his steps in high heels caused £2,000 worth of damage to the tiles. Yet the 77-year-old views the situation with surprising equanimity: 'That was obviously frustrating, but really I find it all quite amusing.'
He was less amused when a professional camera crew showed up unannounced and began to photograph a sportswear clad woman as she swung from his railings. When he went outside to take a video, the crew asked him to stop filming as it was 'distracting' for the model. 'It's my house!' Lee told them. The model turned out to be former Made in Chelsea star Binky Felstead.
Anywhere beautiful seems to get overrun by the Instagram crew. Greenwich Park is famous for its cherry blossom trees, which bloom with candy pink flowers every April. Nowadays, you can barely see them for the hundreds of people who are using them as a backdrop for their content creation. There's no point trying to go for a walk: all the pathways are blocked by tripods. 'It's a shame locals don't get to enjoy the short time these beautiful trees are so picturesque,' said one on a Greenwich residents' Facebook group. Others have seen influencers shaking the branches so that they can get the perfect action shot of blossoms raining down around them. 'It's terrible. They've really damaged the branches. Some are hanging off having been snapped,' added another.
Meanwhile, restaurants have become overrun by the tyranny of the phone-eats-first types. It's one thing to take a sneaky snap of your meal when it arrives, but influencers often pitch up with a full ring light and tripod or repeatedly use the flash on their phones, which is particularly galling in any dimly lit dining room.
Some restaurants try to discourage diners from using their phones. 'They are the barrier to conviviality,' St John founder Fergus Henderson once told the Standard. 'Your phone is not your tool for eating, it should not be on the table with your knife, fork, glass and bread.' The Clerkenwell restaurant has a sign outside its dining room asking patrons not to use their phones.
'It's very intrusive when you come for dinner and you see everyone on their phones. If you want to be on your phone, stay at home,' says Martin Kuczmarski, owner of The Dover in Mayfair. The sultry New York-style Italian restaurant has been one of the hottest tables in town since it opened last year, and many social media mavens have been desperate to get through the door. 'I've been approached directly by people who say, 'I'm an influencer, I have 1.5 million followers, can I come for dinner — table for four — in return for one post?'' says Kuczmarski. He always turns them down, because he would not want to create a 'fake image' of The Dover, nor does he think it is fair on paying guests, who then have to put up with the endless photo taking. 'I think too many restaurants in London are using these techniques,' he adds.
Is there no peace in this world any more? Not even the London Underground is safe. I saw a TikTok of an influencer trying to take an 'aesthetic video' at a Tube station, death-staring at any commuter who dared walk in front of the shot. She was at Oxford Circus, one of the busiest stations in London. Perhaps it was rage bait. Consider me baited. This is the fresh hell we live in: an expectation that people should happily let some random person's content creation dictate their lives, even if only for a few seconds. I miss the days when people had a little shame.