With Bridget Jones famously returning to our screens on Friday in Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, would she really be ‘all by herself’ if she was still renting her iconic three-bedroom apartment in the heart of Borough Market today?

With room rents in SE1 now averaging £1,193 per month, Bridget would need to find two flatmates or at least triple that sum to rent her pad, at 8 Bedale Street, solo today (unlikely on a publishing salary).

London rents may finally be showing signs of slowing, but that doesn’t make it any easier to live like your favourite fictional characters.

A new look at London’s rental market suggests that even the most iconic TV and film residents—many of whom lived in areas once considered affordable —might now have to rethink their living arrangements in line with today’s rental market.

And it’s not just Bridget who is likely to be priced out of her digs. Over in sought-after Notting Hill, William Thacker, the travel bookshop owner from Notting Hill, might find that one flatmate called Spike wouldn’t be enough to keep his five-bedroom home at 280 Westbourne Park Road, W11, where room rents now average £1,200 per month.

Next door, Paddington Bear, whose Portobello Road home was once a quirky and affordable pocket of West London, would now be looking at prices that reflect Notting Hill’s status as a celebrity hotspot rather than a bear-friendly bargain.

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However, not all London rents are currently rising. Room rents in Chelsea (SW3), where the characters of Absolutely Fabulous reside, dropped by 9% between Q3 2023 and the same period in 2024 from £1,632 to £1,488 per month—good news for anyone looking to call this prestigious postcode home.

A deep dive into the latest SpareRoom rental data shows London’s once-affordable postcodes are also shifting in price. Del Boy and Rodney, who lived in the fictional Nelson Mandela House, Peckham (SE15) in Only Fools and Horses might be surprised to see how much the area has changed. What was once an overlooked part of South London is now highly sought after, with average room rents reaching £935 per month. The Trotters would need a fair few “lovely jubbly” business deals to keep up with these rising rents. Mark and Jez from Peep Show may have once called Croydon home and, while room rents in the area now average £834 per month, it remains one of the more affordable options in London.

Meanwhile, in East London, Mr. Bean’s quirky E4 studio in Chingford might still be one of the most affordable areas in the capital, with average room rents at £806 per month, perfect for a man and his teddy.

Matt Hutchinson, director at SpareRoom, said, “While London rent rises have shown signs of slowing down, the reality is that even the most iconic fictional residents might struggle to rent their homes in today’s market, particularly in traditionally affordable areas like Notting Hill and Peckham, where rents have risen significantly over the years. The return of Bridget Jones after almost 25 years is a reminder of how much rents have changed over the years and how many people are being priced out of their homes in the capital.

“Affordable London rents might also seem like fiction but the London rental market does appear to be showing signs of rebalancing, offering some hope in what has long been a volatile market. But with room rents averaging £993 per month, it’s clear many of our favourite characters – from Bridget Jones to Mr. Bean – would either need to flatshare or earn significantly more to stay in these iconic locations.”

Please find more information and the full Q4 2024 rental index results for the UK and London here. Average room rents in every London postcode can be found here.

*SpareRoom’s Quarterly Rental Index data compares data from Q4 2024 with Q4 2023, based on 200,000+ UK room ads (inclusive of bills). Sample size is the combined total across both periods. Towns/cities/postcodes with a sample size of under 25 have been excluded from this report. London data covers E, EC, N, NW, SE, SW, W & WC postcodes.