'We live on street made famous by Love Actually - tourists can be so annoying'
The residents of a street in London made famous by Love Actually have said the tourists can be 'frustrating', especially when some of them brazenly walk into their homes.
St Luke's Mews in Notting Hill was used for one of the most iconic scenes in the 2003 rom-com, in which Mark, played by Andrew Lincoln, turns up at Juliet's - played by Keira Knightley - door with a series of cue cards, ready to declare his love to her after staying silent for years.
And while residents living on the street - where houses can sell for millions of pounds - love living there most of the time, they admitted it can be frustrating when tourists turn up to take photographs of their houses, especially during the Christmas period when the film is set.
The street is the backdrop for one of the most famous scenes from Love Actually (Alamy Stock Photo)The woman who lives in the pink house used for the cue cards scene did not want to give her name but said she was unaware of the property's famous past before she bought it back in 2006, three years after the film was released. She also said she tried to encourage people to leave a charity donation in exchange for taking a selfie outside her house but has been left "frustrated" with the number of tourists that turn up - and said some have even "walked in" without permission.
She explained: "I must have one of the most 'Instagrammable' homes in London. I get a lot of people doing guided tours to come and look at the house and they are charging them. I tried to make a good thing out of it and put out a charity box if people wanted to take a selfie.
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"It gets very frustrating with people peering in through the window while I am trying to work from home. It can get very annoying. One time I had people asking me why there was no coffee available to buy! People just think it is Disneyland.
The woman who bought the pink house didn't know it's history at the time (Tony Kershaw / SWNS)"I did not know that the house was used in Love Actually before I bought it in 2006. But now I get people banging on the door and walking in."
And Jenny Hildreth, who lives next door to the famous house and has done so for 15 years, said the street is an "absolutely wonderful" place to live, but agreed that the tourists can get "a bit annoying".
"It's lovely living here, it's absolutely wonderful. It's so central and quiet, and very pretty too. I'm very lucky to live here," she explained, "The Victorian architecture is lovely. This really is a vibrant area with Portobello Road nearby and lots of lovely cafes and markets. It's quite artsy.
"You get a lot of people taking photos of the house next door for Instagram. It can get a bit annoying. During the pandemic this all stopped, it was quiet and nobody came by. But more recently you get tourist groups coming through."
Those who live further down the street don't mind the tourists so much though, as they don't stop outside their property so they don't have to deal with the bulk of the interactions. Joanna Stepp has lived on the street with her partner for just over two years, and loves the area.
She said: "This is a wonderful community with great neighbours. It's generally very calm and peaceful, but every week we get many tourist groups and tours walking through to see the pink house. It seems to be a Spanish tour, so I think Love Actually must be really popular in Spain - which I didn't realise! I like Love Actually, but my all-time favourite Christmas movie has to be The Holiday."
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