UK’s 9 Instagram hotspots which are being overrun by superfans

Vauxhall, London

Claim to fame The Black Dog was a nondescript pub in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens until Taylor Swift dropped a clanging hint on her just-launched album The Tortured Poets Department that an ex of hers used to go there. The pub called for help with its new-found fame on TikTok (a video plea received more than two million views in 72 hours): ‘Swifties please advise on next steps.’

Complaints? ‘It’s been a lot to process,’ one bartender told the Evening Standard. The pub hired security.

Spotted There is zero evidence that Swift has ever been to the pub but its staff, some of whom are Swifties, have been ‘desperately searching CCTV’.

Londonderry, Northern Ireland

Claim to fame TV comedy Derry Girls has been such a hit that Londonderry’s canny tourist board introduced a new immersive Derry Girls Experience, an exhibit and walking trail with sets, props and virtual-reality encounters.

Complaints? The council got an earful from miffed local shop owners who argued that closing Shipquay Street for filming over Christmas would damage their livelihoods.

Spotted Last October two of the show’s stars, Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, made a surprise appearance during a Fatboy Slim gig at the Unit 8 Warehouse concert in Londonderry, sounding rave horns during the set.

 

Wrexham, North Wales

Claim to fame Film stars Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds bought Wrexham AFC for £2 million in 2020. Tinseltown money, celebrity wattage (TikTok quickly agreed to be a shirt sponsor) and the Disney+ documentary Welcome to Wrexham have fuelled back-to-back promotions through the football leagues.

Complaints? Locals living next to Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground told The Sun newspaper they have been trapped in their homes and overrun with tourists since the club’s Hollywood takeover.

Spotted Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Emma Corrin and Hugh Jackman have become ‘part of the Wrexham family’.

Castle Combe, Wiltshire

Claim to fame Often described as ‘the prettiest village in England’, the chocolate-box parish has become the pick for film crews searching for a ‘ye olde England’ feel: Steven Spielberg (War Horse), Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt (The Wolfman), Matthew Vaughn (Stardust) and Julian Fellowes (Doctor Thorne) have all filmed here.

Complaints? You can’t move for drone-wielding travel influencers with a brand to build. A January visitor labelled it a ‘tourist-flooded hellhole’, even going as far as to ask if it was ‘one of the worst places to live in the UK?’

Spotted Gordon Ramsay popped into the nearby Fosse Farmhouse B&B in Nettleton.

Ardross Castle, Ross-shire

Claim to fame ‘The Traitors castle’ is such a big draw to the Highlands that Google searches for flights to Scotland rocketed by 55 per cent during the show’s January run – even if you’d have to splash upwards of £45,000 to stay in the actual castle (wedding bookings only).

Complaints? Murky forums are abuzz with drone enthusiasts planning to fly their gadgets (illegally) over the castle. Coastal walkers have moaned about being blocked off by the film crew and ‘Faithfuls’.

Spotted The cast filming at Boat of Garten Station, an hour’s drive southeast from Ardross Castle.

Calderdale, West Yorkshire

Claim to fame Happy Valley, Secret Invasion, Gentleman Jack, Netflix’s Fool Me Once and The English Game plus the Paramount+ period drama A Gentleman in Moscow.

Complaints? Secret Invasion turned Halifax’s £19 million Piece Hall into a film set of Moscow, then set off explosions, leaving nearby shop windows covered in soot.

Spotted Samuel L Jackson has been seen in local restaurants and is apparently partial to fried seafood, lemonade and tiramisu.

Holmes Chapel, Cheshire

Claim to fame The sleepy Cheshire town and birthplace of Harry Styles is visited by 5,000 Harry fans (Harries) every year, roughly equivalent to its entire population. One father and daughter flew nearly 6,000 miles from Japan for a day before travelling straight back.

Complaints? One fan was left in tears on her 18th birthday after falling down a muddy slope.

Spotted No celebs here and definitely not Styles. But locals (led by Peter Whiers, a retired nuclear engineer) are planning official tours next year with guides hired to show dedicated fans sights such as the Chinese restaurant Styles once took Taylor Swift to.

Tamworth, Staffordshire

Claim to fame TikTok videos of the little-known Ben Newman, AKA Spudman. His jacket potatoes and his pink mohawk exploded in popularity on the platform last autumn, racking up more than 100 million views. New fans flew in from Malaysia, queues at his van stretched halfway around town and canny locals charged £75 to hold a place in the queue for visitors to pick up his £5 potato topped with beans, cheese and bacon.

Complaints? TikTok tourists whinged about the ‘boarded-up shops’ and a ‘dead town centre’.

Spotted Newman claims Emma Bunton and Alan Titchmarsh have stopped by his food truck for a spud.

Kettering, Northamptonshire

Claim to fame The one condition of filming Saltburn at 700-year-old Drayton House? Not to tell anyone its location. Unfortunately for the estate’s aristocratic owner Charles Stopford Sackville, a local TikToker worked it out and posted directions in a video on New Year’s Day.

Complaints? The post got 5.5 million views and drew a torrent of selfie-hungry tourists. Lawns were trampled.

Spotted Rosamund Pike in The Snooty Fox (a pub in nearby Lowick, where she joined a darts practice). Richard E Grant at the pub quiz.