Borough Market Filming Ban: The Influencers Fighting Back

The Borough Market filming ban started the way most internet fights do: mid-sentence. Food reviewers Gerry del Guercio and Paul Delany, who run the Instagram account Bite Twice, were filming a review of a nine-pound apple crumble from the Humble Crumble stall when security stopped them and told them to leave, The Tab reported.

Gerry called the dessert slightly better than what he got at primary school, then posted the ejection to his two hundred thousand followers, writing that the pair got kicked out of Borough Market while reviewing the ridiculously overhyped viral crumble. Speaking to The Times, he argued the market owes its modern crowds to phones like his: "The modern concept of Borough Market now exists because of social media. It needs it. The whole not-recording thing is ridiculous, we're just two guys with camera phones."

The Borough Market filming ban has caught other creators off guard too. A YouTube couple called We Get Around Travel said they were shocked to be asked to stop filming before they had even tried one of the market's viral sandwiches, according to The Tab. Food reviewer EatingwithTanyaa called the policy ridiculous and said it could limit opportunities for the small businesses trading in the market.

The permission rule, and why weekends are off limits

Under the Borough Market filming ban, anyone filming professionally, which includes social media creators, has to apply for permission online first. Approved creators get an email confirmation to show security staff, and filming is banned entirely at weekends, when the market is at its busiest. A spokesperson told The Standard the rules are about keeping the place moving: "Our filming policy is designed to ensure that activity doesn't cause disruption to stallholders or visitors, occasionally we ask reviewers to stop filming if they're causing congestion or haven't got the relevant permission."

The market insists it values the people it is now policing. "We value the role that food reviewers play in showcasing Borough Market and its traders," it said in a statement quoted by Hot Dinners, adding that its security team is trained to ask for permission from anyone filming. With the debate over the Borough Market filming ban still running, the market says it is reviewing its filming policy.

Who made the queues?

That review matters to the creators, because their core argument is that they built the modern version of the place. In their telling, the Borough Market filming ban is the venue biting the hand that feeds it. Gerry told Hot Dinners the whole row feels strange because the rules sat there quietly for a while: "It's all a little bit odd really, I think Borough had these rules in place for quite a while, but I guess someone must have seen the reel and thought it was a good story. It's been a bit of a weird 24 hours."

Hot Dinners backed the creators' case on the crowds. The site argued that you would have to be living under a rock not to connect the huge queues snaking around certain stalls to social media coverage, and credited creators like Bite Twice and Eating with Tod with putting the Black Pig sarnies and the Ginger Pig sausage rolls on every foodie visitor's must-visit list in London.

The fight is part of a bigger London mood about cameras, and it is the latest episode of creators clashing with the real-world places that made them famous. Bars, theaters and restaurants across central London are pushing back against smart glasses, CNN reported last month, after videos surfaced of people filming women without their knowledge. The eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica says seven million pairs of AI glasses were sold in 2025, anti-smart-glasses ads have started appearing at London bus stops, and the UK banned smart glasses in courtrooms back in August. The Borough Market filming ban looks like the foodie version of the same instinct: the city is deciding where the camera gets to go.

It is also another sign that the business of being a creator keeps getting renegotiated by the places around it. For now, anyone heading to the market on a weekday with a phone will need the permit email in hand before they hit record. Whether the review ends with a looser rule or a stricter one is the next thing everyone is watching, because the queues that made the Borough Market filming ban famous are still there, phones up, waiting for the next viral dish.