Halloween in London, 2005 and 2006: Archive Pictures

Regent Street and Haymarket, London · 31 October 2005 and 31 October 2006

Taken 22:06 (camera clock), Monday 31 October 2005, Haymarket, and 03:36 to 03:57 (camera clock), early on Wednesday 1 November 2006, Regent Street, London

I am Charles Pycraft, a London photographer. On two Halloween nights a year apart I was on the West End pavements with my camera: outside Tiger Tiger on Haymarket in 2005, and outside Cafe Royal on Regent Street in 2006. This piece keeps to what the files show and what was reported at the time.

Tonight is Halloween, and the Cafe Royal frames turn twenty this weekend. They were made in the small hours after the 2006 Halloween party, when London celebrities were heading home and the costumes, for the most part, had stayed inside.

The pavement, 2006

The caption filed that night says Lily Cole and Martine McCutcheon were leaving a Halloween party at Cafe Royal. My camera has Martine McCutcheon outside at 03:37, hair loose and mid-conversation, in a dark green coat. Twenty minutes later, at 03:57, Lily Cole walks out with her famous red hair down, a white lace scarf, a denim jacket and jeans, bag in hand. No witches' hats in sight. The party clearly kept its fancy dress indoors.

The pavement, 2005

A year earlier the mood was sillier. The caption from 31 October 2005 says Griff Rhys Jones was leaving Sir Alan Sugar's Halloween party at Tiger Tiger, and that he did his best zombie impersonation for the photographers. The three frames, taken over 13 seconds from 22:06, show exactly that: a straight face in a grey raincoat and burgundy suit, then a hand to the chest and a big grin, then arms out in a shuffling stride straight towards the lens.

Who was who

Lily Cole was 18 that Halloween. She had been named Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2004, and in 2006 she won a place to study at King's College, Cambridge, which she deferred while she kept modelling. She later took a double first in history of art. Her film career was about to start too, with St Trinian's in 2007 and Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus in 2009.

Martine McCutcheon had already done it all by 2006: Tiffany in EastEnders, a number one single with Perfect Moment in 1999, an Olivier Award for My Fair Lady in 2002, and Natalie, the role everyone still quotes, in Love Actually in 2003. In 2006 she was the face of Tesco's green bag adverts.

Griff Rhys Jones was having a busy 2005. He reunited with Mel Smith for Comic Relief that March, was presenting BBC Two's Restoration, and set up his own production company, Modern Television. In 2006 came Three Men in a Boat with Dara O Briain and Rory McGrath, and his memoir Semi-Detached.

Their host in 2005 was in his first year as a television star. The first series of The Apprentice had aired on BBC Two that spring, with Tim Campbell winning a job with Sir Alan's company Amstrad.

What was going on that week

Halloween 2005: Arctic Monkeys' debut single, I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, was the number one single for the week ending 29 October, before Westlife's You Raise Me Up took over. At the cinema, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was number one for a third weekend, with Saw II opening in third place just in time for the scary season.

Halloween 2006: on Monday 30 October the government published the Stern Review on the economics of climate change, and Tony Blair called the evidence overwhelming. In the charts My Chemical Romance's Welcome to the Black Parade was finishing two weeks at number one, a properly gothic Halloween soundtrack, before McFly's Star Girl took the top spot for the week ending 4 November.

Where they are now

Lily Cole published her book Who Cares Wins in 2020 and followed it with a podcast. Martine McCutcheon became a Loose Women panellist in 2016 and was the Swan on The Masked Singer in 2021. Griff Rhys Jones spent the first half of 2026 in the West End as Jim Hacker in I'm Sorry, Prime Minister at the Apollo Theatre, and Lord Sugar's The Apprentice reached its twentieth series this year.

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

The pictures

Five frames from two Halloween nights in the West End: Martine McCutcheon and Lily Cole leaving Cafe Royal in the early hours of 1 November 2006, and Griff Rhys Jones leaving Tiger Tiger on 31 October 2005.

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

Martine McCutcheon with long dark hair and a dark green coat, talking as she stands outside a West End building at night. — CAFE ROYAL, REGENT STREET, HALLOWEEN 2006. Martine McCutcheon leaves a Halloween party at Cafe Royal, London, in the early hours of 1 November 2006.

Lily Cole with long red hair, white lace scarf, denim jacket and jeans, holding a small bag on Regent Street at night. — Lily Cole leaves the Halloween party at Cafe Royal on Regent Street, London, in the early hours of 1 November 2006.

Griff Rhys Jones in glasses, grey raincoat and burgundy suit, grinning, hand on chest, on a London pavement at night. — TIGER TIGER, HAYMARKET, HALLOWEEN 2005. Griff Rhys Jones hams it up for the cameras as he leaves Sir Alan Sugar's Halloween party, 31 October 2005.

Griff Rhys Jones standing straight-faced in a grey raincoat and burgundy suit outside a West End bar at night. — Griff Rhys Jones outside Tiger Tiger on Haymarket, London, on Halloween night 2005.

Griff Rhys Jones walking towards the camera with his arms held out from his sides, smiling, on a London street at night. — The zombie shuffle. Griff Rhys Jones strides towards the photographers after Sir Alan Sugar's Halloween party, 31 October 2005.