Gwen Stefani at J Sheekey, Covent Garden, 2006

November 13, 2026

London · November 2006

Taken 21:07 (camera clock), Tuesday 14 November 2006, J Sheekey, St Martin's Court, Covent Garden, London

I am Charles Pycraft, a London photographer. Twenty years ago this week, on Tuesday 14 November 2006, Gwen Stefani came out of J Sheekey, the seafood restaurant tucked into St Martin's Court off Charing Cross Road. By my camera's clock it was 21:07. This piece keeps to what the file shows and what was reported at the time.

The pavement

There is one frame. Her platinum hair is pinned up in a high vintage roll, the eyeliner is dark and winged, and the lipstick is a soft pink. She is wrapped in a black coat with a grey stripe across the chest and a long gold chain. At the left edge of the picture, autograph hunters' hands are already reaching in with photographs for her to sign, and she gives the lens a sideways look on her way past.

Who she was in 2006

Gwen Stefani was weeks away from her second solo album. The Sweet Escape came out in the UK on 4 December 2006. Its lead single, Wind It Up, had reached US radio on 30 October. She wrote it with Pharrell Williams in 2005 for a show of her fashion label L.A.M.B., and it borrows from The Lonely Goatherd, the yodelling song from The Sound of Music, her favourite film. The video, directed by Sophie Muller, had premiered on MTV on 10 November, four days before this picture. When the single came out in Britain on 11 December it went to number 3.

What was going on that week

That same Tuesday night, a few streets away, Casino Royale had its world premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square, with the Queen attending, for Daniel Craig's first outing as Bond. In the charts, Westlife were at number one with The Rose, and at the cinema Borat had just held the top spot for a second weekend, with Christopher Nolan's The Prestige at number 2.

Paris Hilton was in town the same week, and I photographed her too: Paris Hilton in London, November 2006.

Where she is now

Gwen Stefani is still on stage. On Friday 20 November 2026 she plays a one-off headline show at the Borgata Event Center in Atlantic City, her first full show of her own, festivals aside, since No Doubt's run at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

Credit: Charlie Pycraft / BACKGRID. Licensing: Backgrid UK Sales, backgrid_uksales@shutterstock.com

My photography years ran from 1999 to 2014, and that archive is now licensed through Backgrid UK.

More from the archive: Paris Hilton in London, November 2006