Our street has been taken over by influencers taking selfies – they’re destroying our privacy & we want them gone
RESIDENTS have blasted selfish influencers who flock to their pretty stone streets to take selfies for Instagram.
Locals say the wannabe celebs who turn up in their droves are ruining their privacy – and they’re desperate to be rid of them.
The terraced houses lining Anita Street and George Leigh Street in the Ancoats area of Manchester were built for factory workers in the Industrial Revolution.
But since the row appeared in films and TV adverts, it has quickly become a viral sensation.
The streets are now inundated with swarms of influencers keen to get a snap in front of the icon brick frontages.
Residents have bemoaned the “mad” tourist influx.
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One woman – who did not want to give her name – told The Sun: “It can get pretty annoying with people hanging around at night.
“These are our homes not some sight-seeing tours.”
Mum-of-two Susan Taylor, 61 – who has lived on George Leigh Street for 15 years – told The Sun: “My great-grandfather had an undertakers around the corner and my family have lived here for years.
“But it has become too trendy.
“People just want to move in because it looks great and is close to all the trendy bars.
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“But the sense of community has gone. It’s a real shame.
“People drive up and down here so fast, it’s crazy.
“It’s getting awful round here. It’s not the real Ancoats.”
She added: “The parking is terrible and there are a lot of developments around the historic buildings.
“It is beautiful, we try and make it beautiful, we have a lot of filming here.
“It’s a unique street and beautiful, but actually living here is different.”
Warren Donnelly, 54 – who lives on Anita Street – said: “It’s crazy the amount of people who turn up to take pictures of the street.
INSTA-WORTHY
“It’s pretty flattering as it’s great to live here so close to the city centre and all the happening bars.
“However it can get a bit mad.
“One time I opened the curtains on my front window and there was a woman right there having her photo taken next to a bike with flowers.
“I have seen people filming an interpretative dance routine at 9am with a film crew.
“Some people get a bit fed up with all the attention but it’s mostly just a bit of harmless fun.
“We’ve also had people flying drones up as they see these old historic streets next door to modern-day developments.
“It’s a great little area. We have tours coming around, little groups of people. People just stop and take photos as the street is so unique.
“There’s great history, it was Little Italy.
“In the 1970s there were people carrying statues around of the Virgin Mary on Sundays like something out of The Godfather.”
Out walking her dog Pips, Christina Keener, 37, said: “It can get a bit crazy here with people taking photos for Instagram.
“You see women done up the nines first thing in the morning, tottering around in heels having their photos taken.
“But most people are pretty chilled out. It is so a unique area and a great place to live.”
The two streets often feature in film sets – and they had a recent slot in a Seabrook crisps advert.
LOCALS’ NIGHTMARE
Houses were built at the end of the 19th Century to solve the area’s housing problems.
Ancoats had become the world’s first industrial suburb after industrialists moved their cotton mills there.
However, workers lived in squalid slum housing.
Anita Street and George Leigh Street were built in a bid to offer better housing for the poor.
It comes after a grandad told how he was under siege from hordes of scantily clad models and Instagram influencers who take pictures at his home.
Dozens of vain types flock to Peter Lee’s bright pink property every day to do anything from the splits to rubbing their semi-naked bodies up against his front door.
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The former fashion manager has lived in his pink paradise for 43 years.
He’s concerned about the whopping £2,500 bill he’s been quoted to replace tiles on his steps that have been cracked during the photoshoots outside his house.
