Fans of Friends have been defacing the wall outside a New York City restaurant with messages celebrating the show’s 25th anniversary.
The fictional location of the apartments of Rachel and Monica and Joey and Chandler on the much-loved sitcom is located in the Greenwich area, and exterior shots for the building — which also housed the fictional Central Perk coffee shop on the ground floor — were filmed on location in New York at the corner of Bedford and Grove streets. The show itself was filmed on a sound stage in LA.
Restaurant owner Joey Campanaro has now criticised those people who mark their touristic visit to the real-life apartment block, which houses his Little Owl restaurant on the ground floor, by writing on the wall outside his premises.
Speaking to ABC7NY’s Eyewitness News, Campanaro said the recent 25th anniversary of Friends has seen an increase in people writing on the side of the building.
“Whenever I’ve seen them, anybody doing it, I make them stop immediately and tell them I’m going to call the cops,” Campanaro said, before adding that some tourists have even asked restaurant staff if they can borrow a pen so they can scrawl on the wall.
CCTV cameras have now been installed to try and stop the practice, and a sign will soon be added to the wall to remind tourists that writing on the building will be treated as vandalism.
Last week, Jennifer Aniston shared an image of herself with her fellow Friends co-stars as her first Instagram post — racking up 14 million likes in the process.