When fan tourism goes wrong, from Paddington to Harry Potter

If you've ever been tempted to offer your home out as a filming location, stories of overtourism from the owners of property featured in Paddington, Harry Potter and Downton Abbey should serve as a cautionary tale.

The thrill of seeing your street on screen can quickly sour when faced with an onslaught of visitors — residents of Chalcot Crescent, which appears in Paddington, have had to contend with intrusive selfies, while the owners of the Dursley house in Harry Potter have reported fans knocking on the door asking to see the cupboard under the stairs that doubled as wizard Harry's bedroom.

There are many filming locations that have become hampered, and even physically ruined, by visiting fans. Here is what can happen When Fan Tourism Goes Bad....

Paddington | The Brown family house

Chalcot Crescent, a terrace of pastel-coloured Regency-style townhouses in North London's Primrose Hill, will be instantly familiar to fans of the Paddington movies as the Brown family's home.

However, its popularity as a filming location has long been a problem for its residents, and it seems their woes are about to get much worse.

Labour councillor for Primrose Hill Matt Cooper told the BBC: "I've seen people taking selfies right in front of someone's living room window, and you're thinking, you know, if that was me, I'd be a bit annoyed to have my living room put straight on Instagram."

With Paddington in Peru set for release in November 2024, the living room selfies may soon seem like the good old days as there is reportedly now a row going on with Airbnb over a competition prize.

The holiday lettings site is offering the chance for three families to stay in Chalcot Crescent to mark the film's release, spending two weeks carrying out noisy works to recreate the film set in a house for the competition winners. They are also having the house painted blue and are blocking out five parking spaces.

Some of the street's residents have written to Airbnb with their complaints, who have said that they have not disclosed the property's address and are making a donation to the Primrose Hill Community Association.

Harry Potter | Privet Drive

The house in a cul-de-sac in Bracknell, Berkshire was used to film scenes for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as 4 Privet Drive, in the fictional town of Little Whinging in Surrey, where boy wizard Harry lives with his Uncle and Aunt The Dursleys.

The house went on the market in 2016 for £475k and the anonymous owner has told The Sun they experience a "constant" stream of visitors to the house, in the form of Harry Potter fans wanting to take a photo.

They said: "We've had people in floods of tears. It's bizarre. The kids, you get it. But obviously the adults. They dress up sometimes in full gear and recreate scenes.

"There was one time somebody tried to climb the fence. That was when we were like 'Oh my God, don't do that!'"

The owner said they are accommodating to fans and have even moved their car so they can take a photo on the drive.

They said: "It's quite mad... We knew what house we were buying except they didn't really tell us. They didn't tell us they are here all day, every day. It's constant... Ten is the maximum we've had but people come in groups. People come in cars and it's all day and sometimes at night. The school holidays are the worst."

Breaking Bad | Walter White's house

Breaking Bad fans who visited the location of Walter White's house bore the brunt of the owner's frustration recently. The house was used as the family home of the science teacher who turned to drug dealing to leave a nest egg for his family when he was diagnosed with cancer in the hit show.

A video shared on TikTok in January 2023 showed the real-life owner shouting "Get out, you Mexican trash!" at a visiting fan.

She allowed Breaking Bad to film there in 2008, and described it as "six years of fun with the nicest people she has ever met."

But she is now plagued by up to 200 visitors passing by the house per day, and has installed a fence and security cameras after some had attempted to trespass, or reenact a scene in which White threw a pizza onto to his garage roof.

Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan has asked fans to leave her alone, saying: "There is nothing original, or funny, or cool, about throwing a pizza on this lady's roof."

Harry Potter | Dobby's grave

Harry Potter fans are leaving tributes to Dobby the house elf, 13 years after the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One, in which he was buried on the beach.

Dobby was buried outside Shell Cottage, which is meant to be in Cornwall, but the film was shot at Freshwater West beach in Pembrokshire, Wales.

Fans still visit and leave socks - as Dobby was set free by Harry when he gave him a sock as an item of clothing - as well as piling painted pebbles on the sand dunes.

A concerned local resident told Yahoo UK: "The litter and the piles of painted stones are damaging the ecosystem.

"It has only got worse since the film was made - over the years tonnes of rocks have been shifted. And people clog the roads looking for the spot.

"A local volunteer comes and cleans up the rubbish sometimes, but they keep coming back."

National Trust Wales has appealed to fans to stop leaving painted rocks as the paint chips could enter the marine environment and food chain and damage wildlife.

Downton Abbey

Residents of the picturesque village of Bampton in Oxfordshire may love their 200 year old cottages, but they are not quite so keen on the crowds of Downton Abbey fans that peer in their windows and take pictures.

The site was used for the fictional village of Downton in the hit ITV period drama and spin-off movies.

One resident said: "I get fed up with the Downton Abbey lot. They are a pain, walking around with their head-sets on and peeping into your windows. They make me feel like I am living in a zoo."

And residents in Lacock, Wiltshire have a similar problem. Scenes from Downton Abbey were filmed outside the 300 year old cottages as well as several Harry Potter films, Pride and Prejudice, Wolf Hall and the Other Boleyn Girl. As a result it has become a tourist hotspot, crowded with traffic and people taking pictures.

Abbey Road

Since The Beatles posed on the zebra crossing on London's Abbey Road, the crossing has become a top tourist destination.

Traffic is always congested as fans are standing in the middle of the road, trying to recreate the famous Abbey Road album cover.

Cars are so fed up of waiting for tourists to cross the road it seems, that Beatle Sir Paul McCartney was almost run over on the crossing filming a documentary for Disney+.

His daughter Mary McCartney said: "The bit where the car nearly ran him over on the zebra crossing, that was so funny. As we were leaving (the studio), I said, 'I'll film you (on the crossing),' and he went over and this car totally didn't stop for him."

As a result the crossing is constantly wearing away and having to be repainted.

Love Actually

These colourful mews houses in Notting Hill, West London, came to the attention of fans after they were used for the home of Keira Knightley's character in rom com Love Actually, where Andrew Lincoln visits to tell her he loves her by holding up cue cards.

Since being painted pink the house has become such an Instagram sensation that tourists visit to have their photo taken in front of it, without even being aware of which film it featured in.

The owner said in 2020: "I had no idea this house was in the film when I bought it before the Instagram craze and now I am living under a blanket of selfies, tour guides, and a queue of tourists lining up to take photos on weekends."

The street has become so crowded the local council has started highlighting the nearby Portobello Road area, which featured in the Paddington movie, for tourists to visit instead.

Joker

Since Joaquin Phoenix famously danced down these steps in the Bronx, New York City to Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll Part 2 in Joker, they have become crowded with fans wanting to do the same.

Frustrated local residents have found the steps congested with tourists wanting to take photos and videos, blocking the way while they try to go about their daily business.

They even put up fliers saying: “It is disrespectful to treat our community and residents as a photo opportunity."

The Beach

Danny Boyle's 2000 film The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, based on Alex Garland's novel, was about a deserted paradise.

But after the location of Maya Bay in Thailand was used for the film, it became crowded and over popular - attracting 5,000 visitors a day.

The damage to the local ecosystem and coral population was so bad that in 2018 Thailand's National Parks department temporarily shut down the beach, in a bid to protect the once unspoilt idyll.