Notting Hill’s colourful streets are the ultimate spot for some classic bit of London Property Jealousy™. How many times have you wandered through the roads on the way to Portobello market and done some ‘ooohs’ and ‘aahhhhs’ right on cue when presented with the sight of the rows of big bright houses?
Like many other popular spots in London, the houses have become a hub for people capturing content to head over to in a bid for some pretty footage. But now that crowds are stopping to do more than just admire and grab the odd photo, residents are describing the situation as a ‘nightmare’ and have taken new measures to keep ‘influencers’ away.
Some homeowners have started to paint the front of their Notting Hill houses black in the hopes that fewer people will crowd around their properties to take photos and videos. Speaking to the Standard, residents of the properties described how thousands of people stop at their doorsteps each year, with some even climbing on railings and big groups leaving litter.
One homeowner on a street just off Portobello Road formerly rocked a bubblegum pink exterior, but made the leap to paint the front black since it ‘doesn’t look as good on Instagram’.
There is even a campaign underway to encourage neighbours on the street to do the same. In a letter, residents said: “It’s clear that the bright and contrasting house colours are a major draw for photographs for their social media accounts. While we all value the charm of our street, the unintended consequence has been a surge in disruptive tourism.”
Another resident told the Metro that: “What is more irritating than anything else is just noise. Tourists work at a different volume level. There will be a group of 70 plus. It sounds like a football match.”
In the Standard report, residents who painted their houses black have noticed dropping numbers of influencers outside their house, though one noted that it wasn’t necessarily a permanent measure, but one to quell the crowds outside their houses amid the surge in popularity, which some attribute to viral Tik Tok videos, or the fact that the area has been listed as a tourist attraction on Google and Apple Maps.
It could be argued that an entire street being painted black would eventually become a popular sight in its own right, but it remains to be seen whether more houses on the colourful streets follow suit.