Often I walk down Praed Street. When my tube arrives at Edgware Road tube station I look to see what chances I have of catching my train. If it’s more than 10 minutes until the next one then I usually get off at Edgware Road and walk down to Paddington Station. This avoids the crush exiting the tube at Paddington. Both the Circle and the Hammersmith & City Lines are horrible in the rush hour.
One day I noticed that the eery Wig Shop on Praed Street was having a sale. This concerned me as I thought the shop might be shutting down.
The wig shop is run by the famous Mr Gilbert. He’s a real local character and I was concerned he might be moving on. So I decided I would enter his shop and see if I could get a photo of the great man in action.
I went in and he was there. He explained it was a genuine sale of ladies wigs (which didn’t interest me – I buy mine at great discount from charity shops). I mentioned that he was a local celebrity and asked if he would mind if I took a photo of him in his shop.
Unfortunately he declined to be photoed as he said that he does adverts for certain products and the people who employ him may not like his image being taken.
i respected this, bade my fairwells and excited forethwith. A real shame I though.
However, here is a link to a site which does have a photo of the man and a quick interview: Mr Gilbert
Just in case the link goes away, here is the photo from the Newspad site:

A story from a while back when I had very long hair.
Sometimes I get a feeling I’m going to find a passport photo. One morning I was convinced I would find one if I walked from Paddington Station to Edgware road to cath my tube (instead of just catching it from Paddington). It’s good to walk.
On the way, by the bus stop on Praed Street a random man approached me and said:
“I like your hair long mate but it’s a shame because it’s a disgrace”
Interestingly – further up the road is a wig shop, run by the famous Mr Gilbert (of Paddington Green fame). He himself has long hair. (more on this later). What would the poor man have made of that shop I wonder …

one man in a wig:

photo by herve
two men in wigs:

photo by herve
one man’s real hair:

photo by dave