Day of the cucumbers in West Hampstead as fruit pop up in unexpected locations

One of the cucumbers was left on a wall outside someone's home. Picture: Jacob Weinstein Archant

First Japanese Knotweed brought The Day of the Triffids to Hampstead and Kentish Town. Now cucumbers are invading West Hampstead, appearing unexpectedly in several unusual locations and completely baffling residents.

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One cucumber was left in a bush outside a West Hampstead house. Picture: Alice England One cucumber was left in a bush outside a West Hampstead house. Picture: Alice England

The saga started slowly. Heathman spotted a tweet from Anna McGilvray last week describing how she had seen one on the platform floor at West Hampstead Thameslink station, but thought nothing of it, except for the fact that it was a rather peculiar observation.

But then the sightings poured in. Prolific West Hampstead blogger Jonathan Turton, who writes at West Hampstead Life, compiled bewildered tweets from residents who had seen the fruit lying about – and yes, Heathman can confirm it is a fruit.

Five people tweeted about their sightings in West Hampstead, including @AndyGu3, who claims to have seen a short, well-dressed man with jet-black hair and tanned skin (so it can’t be me) purposefully drop a cucumber on the platform at West Hampstead Thameslink station.

When someone told the man he had dropped the fruit, he said he was happy to leave it lying there.

Banker Eugene Regis, 37, came across one balanced on the wall outside his block of flats in Mill Lane.

He said: “I just thought someone had misplaced their supermarket shopping and that someone would come back for it.

“Someone removed it eventually. I didn’t go on Twitter until Tuesday so I didn’t know there were many more of them.”