Residents of Britain’s most expensive street have condemned urban explorers who have been snooping around their luxury neighbourhood for social media content.
There has been an influx of content creators flocking to Winnington Road in north London, where the average house price is £12.5million.
It has remained the most expensive street in Britain for the second consecutive year, and together with the adjacent The Bishops Avenue, the area has been dubbed Billionaires’ Row.
A lead analyst for the private firm SQR Security said he had seen around 30 YouTube videos made by young ‘urban explorers’ coming from across the UK.
He said: ‘These are trespassers going in to properties worth more than £10 million and completely desecrating it to the point it just looks like a building site.
‘We’ve seen videos of people throwing chairs off balconies, pulling lights down, graffitiing the walls, smashing windows. Sometimes they may take a small object.’
There has been an influx of content creators flocking to Winnington Road in north London
He added: ‘If a certain home goes viral, people will travel from all around the country specifically to go to that property.
‘They see it as kind of like a Holy Grail – or the seven wonders of the world; all these historical places people like to go travelling, this is kind of their own version.
‘They see a property online that is abandoned with a swimming pool, and people will hop on a train from the south of England just to go to that place.’
Security guard Efrem is one of the private guards employed by the company to patrol the road.
Bishops Avenue has recently been termed ‘Desolation Row’ after multiple houses have been left ‘derelict’ or empty – with many allegedly linked with the Iranian regime.
On Winnington Road, however, passers-by said the road had still kept its residential feel – despite around one in ten homes appearing to be empty or derelict.
Dog walkers Jane and Simon, who live nearby, said they weren’t surprised the street had overtaken The Bishops Avenue as the country’s most valuable in a Rightmove study.
Simon said: ‘If you look in these streets, you see some flashy cars but it’s not like being in Mayfair or something like that.
‘I think a lot of the international buyers who would have historically bought down here all went central, wealthy Middle Eastern or Indian buyers, I think they prefer being in Mayfair these days, when they used to be around here.
‘The Bishops Avenue is like something from the 60s or 70s when everyone said it was Billionaire’s Row. It’s not.
‘It’s actually old-age homes down there, really, it’s been converted. It’s not a nice street.
‘This is more like how The Bishops Avenue would have been 30 to 40 years ago.
‘Here it’s quite pretty, there’s some huge buildings, but it’s still residential, whereas there – it’s a really wide road, it doesn’t have any conformity to it.’
Private firm SQR Security has started providing 24/7 protection on Winnington Road
Alexis, 46, who lives in nearby East Finchley, said while she appreciated the nice houses, she believed The Bishops Avenue was ‘soulless’.
She said: ‘They’re obviously very nice houses, but it’s really just a thoroughfare for me.
‘There’s often lots of potholes all over the road, so you have to dip going around those, but I think they’re much nicer than The Bishops Avenue houses.
‘I think these are just more like normal houses that people actually live in, whereas [The Bishops Avenue] is just a construction site.
‘I think a lot of The Bishops Avenue mansions are empty, and there’s not really any soul – there’s a bit more soul on this road.’