Camden locals have expressed their anger after TV hit Slow Horses took over parking spaces during their filming.
Times columnist Giles Coren has blasted Camden council for failing to properly warn residents when cameras began rolling for Gary Oldman’s spy drama.
Those who didn’t move their vehicles in time were forced to pay fines.
Slow Horses follows a team of misfit MI5 agents at Slough House who become involved in high-stakes espionage and major British security operations.
The acclaimed series, starring screen legend Gary Oldman, is currently filming its sixth season across various London locations.
However, the production team’s recent arrival in Camden has clearly irritated disgruntled locals.
Images of the site included a number of white filming trucks alongside some cars that received parking tickets after the parking suspension.
Other spaces had been cordoned off with yellow cones.
According to the writer, ‘the greedy commies at Camden Council’ had shared a ‘tiny suspension sign on a tree three miles away’ to warn motorists that the resident parking spots were being taken over during filming.
He said they “then come round and ticket everyone first thing next morning, except crew vehicles that overspill the allocation allowed by their grotty bung.”
Local residents speaking to the Mail Online added that they ‘felt sorry’ for motorists impacted by the parking restrictions, adding that it’s difficult to find any free parking in the area these days.
A Camden council spokesperson told The Standard: “Camden is a very popular location for filming, and we work hard with our film office and production companies to ensure that any disruption to residents and businesses is kept to an absolute minimum.
“We always carefully assess a production's parking requests and work with them to reduce their impact on any area as much as possible.”
Based on a series of books by the same name written by Mick Herron, Slow Horses is predominantly set in various locations around the capital.
This month, a number of people around Camden and Hampstead have spotted production filming the show's latest instalment. For many onlookers, it’s often a pleasant surprise to spot the show’s well-known stars in action.
Slow Horses Filming In Camden so much fun to watch #Camden pic.twitter.com/83BPi9YONc
— Zachariah Hassler (@zachariahassler) January 21, 2025
The show’s location manager, Ian Pollington, told The Standard last year that arranging shoots can be ‘challenging’, but the series worked hard to secure collaborations with housing agencies that have unlocked more local access.
“We've got access to locations that we wouldn't have necessarily have gained access to without that [love of the show] which has been amazing,” he told The Standard last year.
“On two or three occasions when we've been shooting in Central London, in particularly Marylebone, that's led to access into buildings, that we wouldn't have ordinarily.”
