One of London‘s oldest markets has banned food influencers from creating content at weekends to stop ‘disruption’ to stallholders and visitors.
Borough Market, based at London Bridge, is asking food reviewers to ‘apply for permission’ to film before they visit and has outright banned it on the weekend.
Gerry del Guercio, who runs the Bite Twice social media account with his friend Paul Delany, was trying out one of the bakery stalls, Humble Crumble, when he was interrupted by security.
The pair were using a phone to film a review of the apple cinnamon crumble and custard, however, after a few bites of the sweet dessert, they were asked to stop recording and leave the premises.
Despite being asked to leave, Mr Guercio believes content creators like himself are ‘bringing queues’ to the fresh food market, one of the most visited attractions in the capital.
‘The modern concept of Borough Market now exists because of social media. It needs it, it’s important to them,’ he told the Times.
‘The whole not-recording thing is ridiculous, we are just two guys with our camera phones. I understand if you are say Channel 4 with a big set-up, camera and lights, but we aren’t getting in anyone’s way.’
To apply for permission, content creators must fill out a form on the market’s website, letting them know the purpose of any filming, when they plan to film and the size of the ‘crew’. If anyone filming is caught with a ‘permission letter’, the market has said they will be asked to stop and leave the site.
Gerry del Guercio, who runs the Bite Twice social media account with his friend Paul Delany (pictured), was trying out one of the bakery stalls, Humble Crumble, when he was interrupted by security
Despite being asked to leave, Mr Guercio (pictured) believes content creators like himself are ‘bringing queues’ to the market, one of the most visited attractions in the capital
Borough Market, based at London Bridge, is asking food reviewers to ‘apply for permission’ to film before they visit and has outright banned it on the weekend
Mr Guercio had just labelled the £9 crumble as ‘slightly better than what I got at primary school’, when security asked if he had permission to film.
After being escorted out of the market, the pair said they were ‘really shocked’ after spending ‘100 quid in an hour’.
The food content creator said he was aware of other influencers being kicked out of the market after being caught filming without permission.
Also capturing the moment they were asked to leave the market were couple Haley and Damian, who run a YouTube channel called We Get Around Travel, leaving them shocked after seeing all the content already online.
The pair were about to try one of the popular sandwiches from The Black Pig, but were stopped before they got the chance.
They said: ‘We didn’t get to find out. We actually got kicked out for filming. Surely we weren’t the first people to film there, we thought. Yeah, they are literally 754,000 videos online of the Borough Market but we got kicked out.
‘The security guard maintained something about our microphone looking too professional. I’m not quite sure. ‘
Tanya Goode, who runs the EatingwithTanyaa Instagram account, described it as ‘ridiculous’ that content creators could not film without permission.
She said: ‘The first thing I do when I’m looking for somewhere to eat is look at what reviews others have filmed. Enforcing this all the time really would limit the opportunities for small businesses in the market.’
A spokesperson for Borough Market said: ‘Our filming policy is designed to ensure that activity doesn’t cause disruption to stallholders or visitors and our security team is trained to ask for the relevant permission from anyone filming in the market.
‘This occasionally means we ask food reviewers to stop filming if they are causing congestion or haven’t got the relevant permission.’
