Our neighbours have painted their posh homes black to deter influencers taking pics – but we've taken different approach

The Sun

5 hours ago

RESIDENTS of a world famous London neighbourhood have painted their homes black to put off idiot influencers - but others are resorting to more drastic measures.
Locals living in swanky, colourful homes in and around Hillgate Village, Notting Hill, say TikTokers and tourists are ruining their lives.
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A small collection of former slum houses, the neighbourhood is now home to the wealthy, with property prices in the millions.
It was made famous worldwide by the 1999 film Notting Hill starring Hugh Grant, with the area's bright and pastel-coloured homes continually being swamped with TikTokers doing impromptu photo shoots and dance videos for years.
Residents have told how "vain" influencers sit on their steps, peer in their windows and litter on the street.
Now, several homeowners in Hillgate Village and the surrounding area have taken drastic measures to curb the "irritating" visitors.
Some are dumping rubbish outside, while others are putting up chains, while one plans to chuck a bucket of water over any unwanted tourists.
Diane, who lives in a pastel blue house on Hillgate Place, told The Sun that she "doesn't clean the front" of her house and leaves piles of rubbish dumped outside.
She hopes to make her home a less attractive backdrop for photo shoots and has employed the unusual tactic to help maintain her privacy.
Diane is also deliberately neglecting to repaint her house.
She said: "My privacy is interrupted, these houses go for a lot of money and sometimes it gets to the point that it's not even worth it."
Residents on nearby Lancaster Road have taken to repainting their houses black or dark blue to contrast to the pastel colours.
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Some residents spoke of taking more extreme measures, Patricia Smith, who lives on Hillgate Place said the issue has "got worse and worse year by year".
She added that she "wishes she had a bucket of water to pour over them [the influencers]."
Residents have put up privacy signs, CCTV, chains and ropes at their front doors in a desperate bid to discourage the hoards of influencers.
Despite the locals' best efforts, "hundreds" of influencers still show up to snap pics in front of their homes.
Residents told of TikTokers lugging around tripods, changing tents and professional cameras to be used in extended photo shoots outside their front doors.
They also use garden fences as clothes racks and leave their possessions on residents cars, and several locals have had to shoo them away.
One resident, who asked not to be named, said: "In the last few years it's gotten really out of hand, people are quite rude actually.
'They just leave rubbish all over.
'You can hardly move sometimes. I think it's a shame because there's nobody famous living here.
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"If you ask someone 'why are you taking a picture' they look at you blankly like you're mad."
The resident went on to say the neighbourhood has become an "influencers paradise" with other locals calling it a "pain in the arse".
Brent, who lives on Callcott Street, said: "I often have to tell them to get off the steps because they don't realise the difference between the pavement and the steps.
"It's incessant, its irritating. When people just come up and think it's a nice background because the doors purple and take a photo I resent it."
Locals are subject to dozens of visitors a day with hundreds coming during the holidays, weekends and when the weather is nice.
My privacy is interrupted, these houses go for a lot of money and sometimes it gets to the point that it's not even worth it
DianeNotting Hill resident
They tell horror stories of influencers propping phones against their doors and dancing in front of their windows, completely disregarding residents' privacy.
Michael Freeman, a photographer who lives on Callcott street, said: 'We've been here for years, it wasn't meant to be a tourist attraction.
"When we moved in, a lot of the houses had regular brick finishes.
"We went to some trouble to paint it, in the process of gentrification neighbours started to do it.
'It's only in the last few years because of social media that it's become a tourist attraction for heavens sake."
Why are the homes in Hillgate Village pastel coloured?
The brick and stucco homes have only become pastel coloured after WW2 as the area has become increasingly affluent.
Kensington & Chelsea council has since designated Hillgate Village a 'character area'.
There remains some homes in the village which have the original brickwork exposed.
The area was once described as a "slum" and the homes were lived in by brick makers, blacksmiths, and coach drivers.
Hillgate was nicknamed 'The Racks' and had a rough reputation for a century, until the area become popular in the post-war period.
He continued: 'At some point, clearly it became promoted on foreign sites.
"Of course it's an invasion of privacy, particularly at a weekend it's full of people walking around taking pictures. It's a bit silly."
Michael went on to call Hillgate Village a 'TikTok village' and said tourists flocked to the coloured houses mistaking them for movie locations.
Referencing the romcom Notting Hill, also starring Julia Roberts, which features a home with a blue door, he said: 'It's frustrating. Any blue door would do, you find people photographing opposite the wrong blue door.
'It's to do with social media. It's now been taken over by tourists, this street in particular.
"It is a bit annoying when people start climbing on steps. Yesterday I had to go out, some girls put their stuff on the hood of my car. A few times I've had to shoo people off.
'It's obviously popular because they're clean, bright colourful backgrounds.
'Some [influencers] are thoughtless in a way, a couple of girls a few weeks ago were sitting on my neighbours steps having lunch and left their rubbish there.'
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The famous blue door which features in the movie, is in fact a mile away from Hillgate Village.
Homes all across Notting Hill are painted in bright or pastel colours and have been used in several films and TV series, the nearby Portobello Market also attracts thousands of tourists a year.
While The Sun was there this week an Italian tourist, who was visiting London for one day, arrived to take photos.
Beadrice, ignoring the other attractions London has to offer, said that despite only having a day in the Big Smoke she was desperate to use her time visiting the colourful Notting Hill streets.
Beadrice said: 'We are here just for one day, we're doing a super fast trip. I think that this district is famous for the film. I think that this is one of the most characteristic districts of London.
"We're not taking photos for Instagram. We take photos for memories.'
Despite being drawn by the film Notting Hill, Beadrice and her friends were far from any location used in the making of the Richard Curtis-directed comedy movie in which a US film star falls in love with a shy Brit bookshop owner.
Patricia Smith who lives on Hillgate Place, said: "They're here the whole time, especially on Saturdays, it's a joke, they're very funny, very vain.
"It's very intrusive - they sit on your steps and don't even get out the way. The behaviour is really extraordinary.
'They're not interested in your privacy they're interested in their own self importance. It's a bit sad if that's their main ambition in life.
'It tells more about them than it does about us, the vanity, I've seen people prop their phones on doorknobs and then dance, they come with little tents and change clothes and everything.
'It is irritating, sometimes I wish I had a bucket of water to pour over them. It's not a massive problem but it is an irritation because they don't respect your privacy.
"They actually assume it's okay whereas it's actually not, these are our properties. It's just got worse and worse and worse year by year."
'There's nothing you can do it about it'
Diane, who deliberately leaves the front of her house uncleaned and unpainted, added: 'It's very nice that people like our houses enough to want to photograph them.
"But you get people who are influencers and they bring lots of gear with them, cameras, tripods, it's really annoying because they're talking outside and there's nothing you can do about it.
"They sometimes do photo shoots, professional ones are fine, they're well organised and they don't upset anybody.
"It's quite annoying when they don't ask the council for permission, it's disruptive. I don't want people to take photographs of my home.
"I don't clean the front because I don't want people taking photographs.
"If the weather is nice there's a lot of people. They come and sit on the steps which is private, I would tell them to move but some people don't feel they can. They hang their clothes on the railings, I have to tell them to move it.
'My privacy is interrupted, these houses go for a lot of money. Sometimes it gets point that it's not even worth it.'
On nearby streets residents have taken to leaving out donation tins as a way of asking for compensation for the influencers intrusions.
Andrew, who lives on Westbourne Park Road, just round the corner from the famous blue door, said his neighbours have taken to putting up ropes and chains to stop entitled influencers sitting on their front steps.
He said: "They are oblivious to you completely. You just have to walk past them if they are in the middle of their photograph."
Is your street overrun with annoying influencers and tourists? Email [e-mail]
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