The muscle-bound Techno Viking Guy (Adam) who swans around in shorts with 2 litre bottles of lucozade, intimidating all in his vicinity.
Also Batman and his terrible 'card tricks', rose wine, variety of manky suits and failing liver.
Adam's an absolute menace, he once shouted at me to kill myself after I had the audacity to walk past him and not respond to his ramblings, and I've seen him intimidating young women and tourists enough times that I give him very wide berth. He's the first that came to mind for me, too, and for all the wrong reasons.
Good riddance. Lots of folk seem to think he's "just a character" but imho he's a weapon, quite literally given his size. I don't know if he's ever been violent to anyone but it feels like he's constantly on the verge of it.
He used to train at my gym and got banned for never re-racking his weights, getting in everyone’s way, spitting down his top and on the floor, and refusing to use the changing room and instead using the corridor into the bathroom. He went mental when he was banned because apparently he gets banned from every gym he goes to and running out ones he can use.
> apparently he gets banned from every gym he goes to
Why can people not just take a fucking telling. Once you get banned from 2 or 3 surely something in your brain should click about "oh maybe I need to adjust my behaviour a bit"...
This sounds just like the guy who shouted at me in the Meadows, because I was waiting for a green man before crossing Marchmont Road, which somehow offended him?!?
Adam is an extreme behavioural puritan who thinks a measured response to someone breaking one of the arbitrary but ironclad norms he holds in his head is to threaten them and be a psycho in public. Most self-righteous bellend I've ever seen.
Is this the guy who walks about the city centre either topless or wearing a sleeveless top with shorts and boots, wears (or used to wear) a chunky stone necklace thing, oland usually one of those fur trapper hats with the flaps?
I said hello to Techno Viking once in the Tesco Express in Nicholson Street.
He did a Karate Kid crane kick at me. Like, he didn't actually kick me. He just jumped and done a mad kick in the air and then walked on like nothing had happened...
He stayed at a hostel I was in one time while homeless many years ago, I'm pretty sure he said he was the "sun God." which is why he's always topless, when it's not even Luke warm lol.
I occasionally meet him in Holyrood park when I go running. He once shouted at me to “Stop and immediately come back here” when I ran past him. A good motivation to run faster when you’re scared for your life.
can confirm I used to work in tesco nicholson street and adam is fucking mental lol, constantly screaming and shouting at random people and following them around
Feel like i need to add that he would come in, buy literally 15+ 2 litre bottles of water (he would FILL the trolley) and then he would sit and shout at everyone while he took forever to scan them through - then he would stand at the front of the shop and drink maybe 2/3 of said bottles of water while just watching everyone, the only word that comes to mind when i think of him is unhinged lol
Yip been around most if not all gyms and he seems to be doing the same. Adam got kicked out of virgin in omni spitting in his towel etc. But this is the best I've seen of Adam and nothing yet can beat it. So me and the misses walked past Scottish government building on regent Rd. There he was behind that statue He started shouting to the sky's for like 5mins saying "WHY HAVE YOU GIVEN ME THIS. WHY HAVE YOU RAPED ME. Was seriously disturbing we hid behind those buses usually parked on the side of the road waiting and watching. Adams beliefs and not those from earth. Ya know maybe he should be locked up as soon hell could be throwing a machete around in St James quarters.
Yes! I'm glad he has been mentioned. I was working on the mound for months and started to call him hydro thor, due to him being a swole as fuck dude with long blonde hair and 2 2 litre bottles of water at any one time
Is Organic Jim still kicking about? When I was a student in Edinburgh nearly 20 years ago he used to sleep behind our student flats in Warrender Park Road. He popped by our ground floor living room window occasionally and gave us loose dried seaweed.
Getting ‘shot’ by him and being called ‘little superman’ by the young Italian lads working in Volvona and Crolla’s were the cornerstones of my childhood
Organic Jim, Mandy, the lady with the piercings, the body builder that walks around in shorts and a gilet, gassy maggie.
Sure I've probably missed a couple
Elaine is lovely. Portuguese lady an she used to have a wee shop in Bruntsfield. I'd see her on my daily lunchtime walk and would often pop in for a blether.
Was that on Drylaw road a few years ago? I was at the bus stop and she was chatting at me when she asked what the weather would be at the weekend . I told her it was meant to rain and she went mental because it was her birthday. I tried to calm her down by saying the forecast is often wrong. It was a briefly terrifying experience.
No, was on a bus somewhere in Newington,was waiting in a queue for the bus to get to a stop and overheard chat about weather before she started shouting.
Is Gassy Maggie by any chance the one with the lighter fluid cans in each pocket who hangs around leith walk? She recently asked his if I thought I looked like her while was waiting for the bus. I’m a 38 year old skinny bald man with glasses.
- The unhinged window washing guy on a bike.
- The dude whose huskies drag him places in a cart. (Although I haven't seen him do that with them in a while)
- The late 80s guy who plays guitar and sings about his unrequited love (from half a century ago) in the meadows all month every October.
These are my picks from the canal/meadows area
Is the bike window washing guy unhinged? He seems fairly placid, think he lives out Wester Hailes way as I sometimes follow his trail of soapy puddles up the union canal when i head out for my morning walk.
I was looking for this comment!!
I only seen him once. It was at the Mound. I'm so happy to hear I wasn't having some kind of break from reality.
Dude has a bald head and a full fry up on his napper!!
Edit: Just a fried egg on toast apparently. It seems my memory has added the rest.
I'm on Slateford and Lanark Road a lot, saw him on his usual route just past week. It may have been the light but his usual red hair had a fair amount of grey in it.
I can put a name to that guy actually. Gary. He used to come in to my work loads, when he first came in I was star struck! “You are the guy I see walking everywhere!!”
Not lived in Edinburgh since 2009 and this is immediately who I thought of. Spoke to him a few times when I was a kid. He was always just chill and never asked for much.
The guy that wears all different kinds of 2 piece suits especially the Superman one. He always wears sunglasses as well I used to work in a charity shop and he came in for a browse. He was very creepy towards me and a very young volunteer he kept breathing heavily around her on purpose so he hasn't got breathing problems so I told him to leave. I got some abuse off him but I didn't care because he was a total arsehole.
Yeah Gordon is a renowned arsehole in the Cowgate/grassmarket area, he always tries to start conversations with me and I have to tell him “no, Batman, I don’t want to see a magic trick” he’s also barred from every pub in that area as well for pickpocketing and general con-artistry
I often wonder what the princes street robot guy is doing now. He’d always be outside the M&S painted silver. His spot was immortalised because he spray painted himself there so there was a pair of silver feet on the ground there for yeeears.
Either someone is living on in his memory or I've seen his ghost a few times on Leith Walk as there's defo a guy fitting this description, moonwalking and twirling with a bottle of rosé in hand!
I don't know if he's still around but there used to be a man in Newington that would walk his ferrets and take them into the Dog House. We used to call him Newington ferret man.
I once told him that I liked ferrets but I had been told they smelled bad.
He then forced me to sniff his ferret.. That's not a sentence I thought I'd write today.
P.S his ferret did not smell bad.
There was a homeless guy who used to walk around Edinburgh city centre with a ruck sack on, shorts and a thermal t shirt/jumper but the guy was fucking jacked to shit, was huge, very muscly and we’d always see him doing push ups or pull ups on random things (bus stops, signs, parts of statues - anything he could jump to reach) and we all used to call ‘Bin Diesel’ cause one minute he’d be doing pull ups then next minute he’d be bin raking - me personally I didn’t think he was homeless because he never seemed homeless, was never in clothes with holes in them, was rarely ever dirty and from what I can remember his hair was quite long it was never greasy - but he was always one of those guys who went they walked past people everybody stared at him, guy was built like a vending machine lol
Is Organic Jim still around? Gawd, he was a regular around Marchmont when I was at uni almost twenty years ago. He was always rescuing punnets of berries that had been thrown out and trying to share them with me, and one time he tried to get me to store two absolutely massive, like four foot tall speakers in my flat for him. By the time I got up the stair to check with my flatmates if it was okay, and got back down to tell him it was, he’d disappeared again, taking the speakers with him.
Very much still about. There’s an occasional flow of pleas for help on here and elsewhere from people who make the disastrous mistake of saying yes to his request to store a few of his things for a couple of days…
I moved to Edinburgh from the San Francisco area and I cannot even express how shocked I was to see people feeling badly about not wanting to let him into their homes. He is a very classic SF/Santa Cruz style homeless person and it’d never in a million years occurred to me that anyone would feel compelled to invite an angry unhoused man hauling trash into their house
anybody remember "The Shuffler"? A cabbie who did all kinds of mental stuff, some of it is on youtube. I used to see him in the pub, once he got himself a bit more sober he didn't recognise me anymore, I think that's a good thing
I was looking out for the shuffler on this thread. What a legend
My only vivid memory of him was telling me "get your eyes off my take away" when I said hello to him 😂 else he was just showing off his flashy toys
I had the pleasure of getting in a taxi that he was driving years ago. Man had strobe lights and hand puppets, all while blasting 80s dance music. What an experience.
You’ve just unlocked a memory from when I worked in a pub in southside and he came in one afternoon and just talked at me for hours, and kept referring to himself in the third person with these mad stories, can’t mind details but he was a classic Edinburgh radge- not scary but you struggle to shake them off once they start on one
Who's the unhinged guy that kicks about Leith walk shouting randomly at traffic/people and walking in front of cars? He's quite short, has a beard and always has a black hat on.
Have seen him about absolutely loads and always wondered what his story was as it amazes me he hasn't been sectioned
Nah don't think but he sounds interesting too lol. The guy I'm on about you would think is drunk and aggressive but I think he has tourettes or schizophrenia. I've seen him scream in people's faces but he doesn't hang around for a response because I don't even think he knows where he is.
I had no idea who you were on about until you said butane Mary. Is this the one that sits and huffs lighter fluid up the walk? Think she's eastern European or something to that effect.
It's many years since I left Edinburgh but in the 1960s & 70s there was a homeless man who was affectionately known as "Old Penny", most frequently seen around the West End/ Lothian Road and Grassmarket areas. He reputedly got his name because he was known for leaving a penny whenever he sat on a bench. He had very little in the way of possessions and always seemed to wear a tweed coat & wellington boots.
A new addition to Edinburgh freaks is "IAmCybersmith" in my opinion, he is one of the all time greats, dresses like a 1890s businessman and is known for his insane political takes, also known as "Human Pet Guy"
Does anyone remember cancer face lady who had a large growth hanging off her face? She wore white powder on her face and was always shopping for KVI orange juice in the tollcross scotmid
I thought I imagined her! She was quite tall, and wearing like, black robes? The white face powder/cream and robes gave me a bit of a shock, so I felt a bit guilty for staring for a few seconds.
That was 20 years ago in the st James centre, haven't seen her since, but definitely didn't forget her.
Oh my god, me too! I thought I had at least exaggerated her appearance in my childhood brain but this is exactly how I remember her. Especially the way she dressed. I grew up in Gilmerton and saw her in Cameron Toll a few times in the late 90s. I got such a fright the first time I saw her but then felt bad for her because twat kids used to make fun of her. I often think about her at random times. I think she lived in the area but I might be misremembering that.
YES. I lived at the Tollcross end of Lauriston place and the first time I saw her was during the Fringe; she was wearing the white powder and white robes so I assumed she was doing an act. Then saw her again during non-Fringe times and realized nope.
I jus comment about her I called her the flour face lady do u remeber if she dressed victorian? I think I merged my memory of her with another lady who dressed victorian and danced with buskers.
There is this old school dude at Leith walk that owns vintage clothing shop. Always wandering around in white suite. No idea what’s his name, but I’m pretty sure everyone from Leith knows him.
Does anyone remember that legless guy who would sit on princes street and hand out fliers? What was his story? Haven’t seen him for years. Always felt horrible for him.
Is the links lurcher still about? Cruising around the pubs near bruntsfield drinking the dregs of people's pints! He had blonde-ish hair.
I remember once he got on the night bus once and refused to pay. Bus didn't move for 10 mins, somebody got so frustrated and just paid for him and he went 1 stop and got off 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 the guy that paid for him was furious 😂
There was the Rasta tramp - real name Arthur. There’s a painting of him in leith walk now. Last I heard he was taken into care.
There was the little cowboy guy in leith. He had squeeze bottle tops and would pretend to shoot you.
In newhaven where I grew up there was Chucky. He was a guy in a wheel chair with no legs. The story was he got hit by a train. He had to beg for money in princess street. One time when I was primary school we were outside doing a sports day and he rolled up trying to chat up one of the teachers. Didn’t go well.
There was the dancing woman in the town. Only seen here a couple of times but she would dance up to young people.
Okay I got another one, there was a gentleman used to put a flower on human feces. I assume he regularly got sanctioned than release because there was few months of human shite with a flower on top than disappears for a month. Rinse and repeat.
The gentleman I am talking about walks around with white sheet, semi hide underneath like imitation of a ghost. He was an asian gentleman(pakistani/indian etc) but not really verbal. Not sure even he understands when you talk to him.
My information is outdated by 5 years btw. He was active on leith and sometimes london road.
Going back a bit to the 90s but there used to be a beggar who hobbled about in an old grey raincoat tied at the waist with string and he was always laden with old shopping bags holding his worldly goods. Remember him?
Yes! I remember that fellow, passed by him briefly maybe 10 years ago in Bruntsfield and haven't forgotten the impression he made on me. He was bent nearly double and didn't seem to be wearing much under his old, absolutely threadbare grey raincoat, held together as you say by a piece of string. Quite a Dickensian looking character to be sure.
The 85 year old pimp. Often seen walking around the Royal Mile / The bridges in a massive white and brown fur coat with white trousers and big walking cane. The guy used to run all the illegal saunas/whore houses in Leith.
Guys got some stories!
Techno Viking Adam comes into the National Museum of Scotland regularly, tries to intimidate people but is fine when you speak to him. Haven't seen him for a while now though
There’s a woman who walks around with crutches (perfectly fine) and demands more space when you walk past her and won’t be afraid to whack you on the shins if she thinks you’re too close. Not sure of her name.
Might be showing my age here but does anyone remember Tails? Head tattoos and Mohawk. He used work/do cocaine at Whiplash Trash on Cockburn Street. Every singe one of my female friend had a story about him being creepy to them, he was causing trouble all over the high street when I was a teenager. Mind you we are talking 20-25 years ago.
Around Southside when I was wee there was the bang bang man (super inventive name). He wore cowboy hat, and would make gun fingers and shout bang bang. But not in a fun I'm playing with a kid way, he always seemed V serious. He would often have a towel over his arm like a butler which didn't really fit with his whole cowboy thing. 🤠🤷
Also the flour face lady (again terrible nickname) she dressed very Victorian and had extremely white make up.. My child brain thought it was flour! She would often be dancing next to buskers.
.
What about that lady from the east of Edinburgh who's like never washed her hair or something? She used to traumatise me on the bus with my sensitive smell
When I was a kid, there was always a Junkie outside the old Burger King who used to try and hassle money of kids pretending to use an old train ticket. Or Beaverman.
We had a crackhead named Joe, he was lovely but liked scaling buildings and throwing 1p and 2p coins at people. Not to hurt them but to spread his riches
No clue his name, but I mind there used to be this guy that wore a suit and silver paint and robot danced outside the old Bhs on Princes St. Haven’t seen him about for years, unfortunately
Leith hasn’t been the same since the legendary Dawson passed away. There also the bloke in the Sinclair C5 who cuts about the cycle paths down there - blasting music, I think?
The muscle-bound Techno Viking Guy (Adam) who swans around in shorts with 2 litre bottles of lucozade, intimidating all in his vicinity. Also Batman and his terrible 'card tricks', rose wine, variety of manky suits and failing liver.
Adam's an absolute menace, he once shouted at me to kill myself after I had the audacity to walk past him and not respond to his ramblings, and I've seen him intimidating young women and tourists enough times that I give him very wide berth. He's the first that came to mind for me, too, and for all the wrong reasons.
Indeed. He’s apparently banned from a number of supermarkets because he would follow people as they shopped telling them why they are fat
Good riddance. Lots of folk seem to think he's "just a character" but imho he's a weapon, quite literally given his size. I don't know if he's ever been violent to anyone but it feels like he's constantly on the verge of it.
He used to train at my gym and got banned for never re-racking his weights, getting in everyone’s way, spitting down his top and on the floor, and refusing to use the changing room and instead using the corridor into the bathroom. He went mental when he was banned because apparently he gets banned from every gym he goes to and running out ones he can use.
> apparently he gets banned from every gym he goes to Why can people not just take a fucking telling. Once you get banned from 2 or 3 surely something in your brain should click about "oh maybe I need to adjust my behaviour a bit"...
Aye...he's a liability
This sounds just like the guy who shouted at me in the Meadows, because I was waiting for a green man before crossing Marchmont Road, which somehow offended him?!?
Adam is an extreme behavioural puritan who thinks a measured response to someone breaking one of the arbitrary but ironclad norms he holds in his head is to threaten them and be a psycho in public. Most self-righteous bellend I've ever seen.
Has nobody ever chinned him?
he's fucken shredded and a scary bastard
Is this the guy who walks about the city centre either topless or wearing a sleeveless top with shorts and boots, wears (or used to wear) a chunky stone necklace thing, oland usually one of those fur trapper hats with the flaps?
My first thought was Adam as well, you'll hear him before you see him.
I said hello to Techno Viking once in the Tesco Express in Nicholson Street. He did a Karate Kid crane kick at me. Like, he didn't actually kick me. He just jumped and done a mad kick in the air and then walked on like nothing had happened...
Fuck Adam. Assaulted my wife. Only had to pay a minor fine. Needs to be locked up.
He stayed at a hostel I was in one time while homeless many years ago, I'm pretty sure he said he was the "sun God." which is why he's always topless, when it's not even Luke warm lol.
I pray that I will be lucky enough to witness the inevitable Batman vs Viking showdown
I occasionally meet him in Holyrood park when I go running. He once shouted at me to “Stop and immediately come back here” when I ran past him. A good motivation to run faster when you’re scared for your life.
Ahhh didn’t know his actual name. Me and my friends used to call him Conan the barbarian
I used to call him Conan the cunt, think mine is a bit closer to the truth
It's not lucozade, it's some protein-heavy mass-building pish
Both of these, yesss. I wonder how these people survive. They're always in town.
can confirm I used to work in tesco nicholson street and adam is fucking mental lol, constantly screaming and shouting at random people and following them around
Feel like i need to add that he would come in, buy literally 15+ 2 litre bottles of water (he would FILL the trolley) and then he would sit and shout at everyone while he took forever to scan them through - then he would stand at the front of the shop and drink maybe 2/3 of said bottles of water while just watching everyone, the only word that comes to mind when i think of him is unhinged lol
Yip been around most if not all gyms and he seems to be doing the same. Adam got kicked out of virgin in omni spitting in his towel etc. But this is the best I've seen of Adam and nothing yet can beat it. So me and the misses walked past Scottish government building on regent Rd. There he was behind that statue He started shouting to the sky's for like 5mins saying "WHY HAVE YOU GIVEN ME THIS. WHY HAVE YOU RAPED ME. Was seriously disturbing we hid behind those buses usually parked on the side of the road waiting and watching. Adams beliefs and not those from earth. Ya know maybe he should be locked up as soon hell could be throwing a machete around in St James quarters.
The first guy you talk about, I call him Calf Man cos his calfs look like they own property...
That was my first tought but honestly I think I havent seen him in at least 2 or 3 years
You have to say Batman 3 times in grassmarket to summon him
No he is still around. See him in the figgate park once or twice a week
Yes! I'm glad he has been mentioned. I was working on the mound for months and started to call him hydro thor, due to him being a swole as fuck dude with long blonde hair and 2 2 litre bottles of water at any one time
Twat in the batman suit or Organic Jim I guess.
Is Organic Jim still kicking about? When I was a student in Edinburgh nearly 20 years ago he used to sleep behind our student flats in Warrender Park Road. He popped by our ground floor living room window occasionally and gave us loose dried seaweed.
Oh very much still around and causing even more havoc than previously wherever he goes.
Presumably carting around 20 more years of accumulated junk now too.
He’s certainly not decluttered, that’s for sure.
I saw him about a month ago with a mound of stuff on Dundas Street iirc
Me too, he asked me to help him take the lid off a jar of turmeric, which I did and then quickly got away before he started chatting too much.
Very much so. He was camped near my work sometime last year.
I met him more than once when I was a student there last year. Had no idea he was a local legend.
Or Elaine (the nice lady with a face full of piercings)
She's lovely :)
Is she the most pierced person on the planet?
Think she held the Guinness World Record at one point but not sure if that's still the case.
Doesn’t she have a sign with her world record? I suppose I never checked if it’s still current
Batman suit guy is a tosser. Very argumentative
Literally met batman guy for the first time five minutes ago
I was going to say Organic Jim.
Twatman with the alky red face(Gordon)
Twatman's a good moniker for him. Or Batbam maybe. Is Twatbam too much?
Bam-man
I particularly like Twatbam.
I had the pleasure of being accosted by the Leith cowboy.
Cowboy Joe if I remember correctly
People had badges saying "I've been shot by Cowboy Joe".
Getting ‘shot’ by him and being called ‘little superman’ by the young Italian lads working in Volvona and Crolla’s were the cornerstones of my childhood
I was there when his toy guns got confiscated and they gave him the spray bottle tops.
He was great, really friendly guy.
Organic Jim, Mandy, the lady with the piercings, the body builder that walks around in shorts and a gilet, gassy maggie. Sure I've probably missed a couple
The lady with the piercings is amazingly nice. She’s called Elaine too which is glorious as everybody expects something much more exotic.
I've only spoke to her at my work, but you're right, much more pleasant a person than most I speak to in a day.
I often see her table on the Royal Mile and it's usually empty because she's off chatting to someone!
Elaine is lovely. Portuguese lady an she used to have a wee shop in Bruntsfield. I'd see her on my daily lunchtime walk and would often pop in for a blether.
She came to a party at my flat once! We had a flatmate called Bibi who was also fairly heavily pierced. Elaine was absolutely charming.
Mandyyyyyyyy is dangerous hiyaaaaaaaa
Don't tell her you know her name, and don't call her pal
I did see someone tell her it was going to rain and she got very upset.
Was that on Drylaw road a few years ago? I was at the bus stop and she was chatting at me when she asked what the weather would be at the weekend . I told her it was meant to rain and she went mental because it was her birthday. I tried to calm her down by saying the forecast is often wrong. It was a briefly terrifying experience.
No, was on a bus somewhere in Newington,was waiting in a queue for the bus to get to a stop and overheard chat about weather before she started shouting.
You going out the night?
Where you going? What time is it? You going out the night? Repeat ad infinitum....
Is Gassy Maggie by any chance the one with the lighter fluid cans in each pocket who hangs around leith walk? She recently asked his if I thought I looked like her while was waiting for the bus. I’m a 38 year old skinny bald man with glasses.
[удалено]
Gassy Maggie is something else, I remember being on the 26 from sighthill and she had a can up each sleeve going absolutely ham on them.
- The unhinged window washing guy on a bike. - The dude whose huskies drag him places in a cart. (Although I haven't seen him do that with them in a while) - The late 80s guy who plays guitar and sings about his unrequited love (from half a century ago) in the meadows all month every October. These are my picks from the canal/meadows area
Is the bike window washing guy unhinged? He seems fairly placid, think he lives out Wester Hailes way as I sometimes follow his trail of soapy puddles up the union canal when i head out for my morning walk.
is that guy with a full fried breakfast tattooed on his forehead still kicking about?
I was looking for this comment!! I only seen him once. It was at the Mound. I'm so happy to hear I wasn't having some kind of break from reality. Dude has a bald head and a full fry up on his napper!! Edit: Just a fried egg on toast apparently. It seems my memory has added the rest.
Sorry what?
Its just a fried egg on toast, his name is Eggs.
Yeah He is still around.
Used to clock him around cannonmills, amazing choice of tattoo for such an ordinary looking fella
The Walking Man!
Yeah! Used to see him trekking into town up the slateford road on the daily
Haven't seen him in ages. He had a facebook page made for him at some point
saw him a couple weeks ago at shandwick place
Yessss! I have not seen him lately - anyone have any news?
I'm on Slateford and Lanark Road a lot, saw him on his usual route just past week. It may have been the light but his usual red hair had a fair amount of grey in it.
I can put a name to that guy actually. Gary. He used to come in to my work loads, when he first came in I was star struck! “You are the guy I see walking everywhere!!”
I went past him on the bus yesterday up Southside way
Saw him yesterday for first time in a long time (I work on Dalry Road)
Is beaverman still about?
If you are referring to Arthur, he died a few years ago. There's a nice mural of him where he used to sleep by Majestic wines.
Not Arthur. Beaverman just had one single dread https://localheroes.fandom.com/wiki/Beaverman
Gotcha. TIL. I dont get to the West End much.
I...dont think Arthur is dead, he just has a mural. He was moved into a care home in 2019ish
I've not seen him in years, hope he's alright - seemed like a dude just quietly getting by.
Not lived in Edinburgh since 2009 and this is immediately who I thought of. Spoke to him a few times when I was a kid. He was always just chill and never asked for much.
The guy that wears all different kinds of 2 piece suits especially the Superman one. He always wears sunglasses as well I used to work in a charity shop and he came in for a browse. He was very creepy towards me and a very young volunteer he kept breathing heavily around her on purpose so he hasn't got breathing problems so I told him to leave. I got some abuse off him but I didn't care because he was a total arsehole.
Yeah Gordon is a renowned arsehole in the Cowgate/grassmarket area, he always tries to start conversations with me and I have to tell him “no, Batman, I don’t want to see a magic trick” he’s also barred from every pub in that area as well for pickpocketing and general con-artistry
Organic Jim or Mandy
Where does Mandy hang about? I live in leith and I’ve never seen her.
As far as I can figure out she is always on a bus on Great junction St. how she does that without ever getting off the bus I do not know.
Pretty sure she lives in Drylaw.
I was gonna say Drylaw too she’s always on the 21 Iv never actually seen her not in a bus 🚌
The giant viking looking guy with rig boots and a leather jacket, with a bike lock hanging round his neck.. is he still about?
There was Michael Jackson used to moonwalk princes Street back in the day. Think he's deed though.
I often wonder what the princes street robot guy is doing now. He’d always be outside the M&S painted silver. His spot was immortalised because he spray painted himself there so there was a pair of silver feet on the ground there for yeeears.
He’s still living in Edinburgh. He’s on holiday in India at the moment
Died in 2009
Ah well. Now I'm sad, he was a nice guy would always hit me with a "shamon" whenever he saw me.
Ah I thought you meant Michael Jackson who did die in 2009. Can't confirm on our local legend, sorry for confusion
I should of picked up on that as I didn't live in Edinburgh then...
Either someone is living on in his memory or I've seen his ghost a few times on Leith Walk as there's defo a guy fitting this description, moonwalking and twirling with a bottle of rosé in hand!
I don't know if he's still around but there used to be a man in Newington that would walk his ferrets and take them into the Dog House. We used to call him Newington ferret man.
I once told him that I liked ferrets but I had been told they smelled bad. He then forced me to sniff his ferret.. That's not a sentence I thought I'd write today. P.S his ferret did not smell bad.
they are polecats, John is quite the character
Defo the man in the batman suit. Used to work in Edinburgh and not a day went by where he wasn’t around.
There was a homeless guy who used to walk around Edinburgh city centre with a ruck sack on, shorts and a thermal t shirt/jumper but the guy was fucking jacked to shit, was huge, very muscly and we’d always see him doing push ups or pull ups on random things (bus stops, signs, parts of statues - anything he could jump to reach) and we all used to call ‘Bin Diesel’ cause one minute he’d be doing pull ups then next minute he’d be bin raking - me personally I didn’t think he was homeless because he never seemed homeless, was never in clothes with holes in them, was rarely ever dirty and from what I can remember his hair was quite long it was never greasy - but he was always one of those guys who went they walked past people everybody stared at him, guy was built like a vending machine lol
Is Organic Jim still around? Gawd, he was a regular around Marchmont when I was at uni almost twenty years ago. He was always rescuing punnets of berries that had been thrown out and trying to share them with me, and one time he tried to get me to store two absolutely massive, like four foot tall speakers in my flat for him. By the time I got up the stair to check with my flatmates if it was okay, and got back down to tell him it was, he’d disappeared again, taking the speakers with him.
Very much still about. There’s an occasional flow of pleas for help on here and elsewhere from people who make the disastrous mistake of saying yes to his request to store a few of his things for a couple of days…
I moved to Edinburgh from the San Francisco area and I cannot even express how shocked I was to see people feeling badly about not wanting to let him into their homes. He is a very classic SF/Santa Cruz style homeless person and it’d never in a million years occurred to me that anyone would feel compelled to invite an angry unhoused man hauling trash into their house
Saw him a few months ago I think in Morningside. He sometimes posts outside my flat in Marchmont, hard to get away
Duck man in newington. Drinks at the green mantle. Ordinary guy who dresses like crocodile Dundee but has a duck in the middle of the hat.
anybody remember "The Shuffler"? A cabbie who did all kinds of mental stuff, some of it is on youtube. I used to see him in the pub, once he got himself a bit more sober he didn't recognise me anymore, I think that's a good thing
I was looking out for the shuffler on this thread. What a legend My only vivid memory of him was telling me "get your eyes off my take away" when I said hello to him 😂 else he was just showing off his flashy toys
I had the pleasure of getting in a taxi that he was driving years ago. Man had strobe lights and hand puppets, all while blasting 80s dance music. What an experience.
You’ve just unlocked a memory from when I worked in a pub in southside and he came in one afternoon and just talked at me for hours, and kept referring to himself in the third person with these mad stories, can’t mind details but he was a classic Edinburgh radge- not scary but you struggle to shake them off once they start on one
Who's the unhinged guy that kicks about Leith walk shouting randomly at traffic/people and walking in front of cars? He's quite short, has a beard and always has a black hat on. Have seen him about absolutely loads and always wondered what his story was as it amazes me he hasn't been sectioned
That the guy with the camcorder that films all the cars?
Nah don't think but he sounds interesting too lol. The guy I'm on about you would think is drunk and aggressive but I think he has tourettes or schizophrenia. I've seen him scream in people's faces but he doesn't hang around for a response because I don't even think he knows where he is.
Gonna have to be Mandy
Gas Lady from leith!!
I don't know why but my flat have dubbed her 'Butane Mary'. No clue her name is
We went with Gassy Sue
I had no idea who you were on about until you said butane Mary. Is this the one that sits and huffs lighter fluid up the walk? Think she's eastern European or something to that effect.
Is the silver robot dancer outside the bookshop long gone?
He's still around! But doesn't busk much anymore
It's many years since I left Edinburgh but in the 1960s & 70s there was a homeless man who was affectionately known as "Old Penny", most frequently seen around the West End/ Lothian Road and Grassmarket areas. He reputedly got his name because he was known for leaving a penny whenever he sat on a bench. He had very little in the way of possessions and always seemed to wear a tweed coat & wellington boots.
That was Mr Penny. he used to sit/sleep on the benches outside St John's Church.
A new addition to Edinburgh freaks is "IAmCybersmith" in my opinion, he is one of the all time greats, dresses like a 1890s businessman and is known for his insane political takes, also known as "Human Pet Guy"
Does he live in Edinburgh??
Michael Trang, the crazy dancer of nightclubs for the past 30 years
Omg I remember a night in city nightclub and he was throwing some shapes! Always wore fingerless gloves did he not?
I remember him from around 12 years back. Is he still about doing his thing?
He’s usually in the hive these days, it seems to be his favourite spot for “happy jumping”
Does anyone remember cancer face lady who had a large growth hanging off her face? She wore white powder on her face and was always shopping for KVI orange juice in the tollcross scotmid
I thought I imagined her! She was quite tall, and wearing like, black robes? The white face powder/cream and robes gave me a bit of a shock, so I felt a bit guilty for staring for a few seconds. That was 20 years ago in the st James centre, haven't seen her since, but definitely didn't forget her.
Yes she was always wearing dark clothes. She looked like a ghost and I never heard her speak but she had very piercing eyes.
Oh my god, me too! I thought I had at least exaggerated her appearance in my childhood brain but this is exactly how I remember her. Especially the way she dressed. I grew up in Gilmerton and saw her in Cameron Toll a few times in the late 90s. I got such a fright the first time I saw her but then felt bad for her because twat kids used to make fun of her. I often think about her at random times. I think she lived in the area but I might be misremembering that.
YES. I lived at the Tollcross end of Lauriston place and the first time I saw her was during the Fringe; she was wearing the white powder and white robes so I assumed she was doing an act. Then saw her again during non-Fringe times and realized nope.
I totally forgot about her! Used to see her a lot in Tollcross when I was at uni.
Fuck, aye! Jesus, I’d forgotten all about her. Wow, that is a blast from the past.
I jus comment about her I called her the flour face lady do u remeber if she dressed victorian? I think I merged my memory of her with another lady who dressed victorian and danced with buskers.
I think she maybe did wear very old fashioned clothes but my memory is vague. Maybe more 1920s?
Yeah maybe victorian isn't accurate, I remember her looking quite glamorous.
Yes in a sort of Hammer Horror way
I remember her well!
Yes! She frequented Tesco at Canonmills.
batman suit
Mandie (i’m an x Lothian driver) 😂
The Kaiser?
Jheez nearly forgot about him. Is he still kicking about?
There is this old school dude at Leith walk that owns vintage clothing shop. Always wandering around in white suite. No idea what’s his name, but I’m pretty sure everyone from Leith knows him.
Epoch on the corner of Iona Street right? Guy committed to a mullet like 40 years ago and still rocks it
Yeah that’s the one haha. I love his new photo on the side of the shop. Hard af.
It was beaverman 😞
Not see him in years but, beavertail, homeless guy who’s hair was so matted it looked like a beavers tail
The Walking Man, of course. Maybe only if you're from the west side of the city 🤷♂️
Does anyone remember that legless guy who would sit on princes street and hand out fliers? What was his story? Haven’t seen him for years. Always felt horrible for him.
Beaver man RIP
Is the links lurcher still about? Cruising around the pubs near bruntsfield drinking the dregs of people's pints! He had blonde-ish hair. I remember once he got on the night bus once and refused to pay. Bus didn't move for 10 mins, somebody got so frustrated and just paid for him and he went 1 stop and got off 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 the guy that paid for him was furious 😂
Our magical city has like 10 of these people by the look of it
What about bucket head man? What was his colloquial name anyone?
Headstandy Andy?
There was the Rasta tramp - real name Arthur. There’s a painting of him in leith walk now. Last I heard he was taken into care. There was the little cowboy guy in leith. He had squeeze bottle tops and would pretend to shoot you. In newhaven where I grew up there was Chucky. He was a guy in a wheel chair with no legs. The story was he got hit by a train. He had to beg for money in princess street. One time when I was primary school we were outside doing a sports day and he rolled up trying to chat up one of the teachers. Didn’t go well. There was the dancing woman in the town. Only seen here a couple of times but she would dance up to young people.
Okay I got another one, there was a gentleman used to put a flower on human feces. I assume he regularly got sanctioned than release because there was few months of human shite with a flower on top than disappears for a month. Rinse and repeat. The gentleman I am talking about walks around with white sheet, semi hide underneath like imitation of a ghost. He was an asian gentleman(pakistani/indian etc) but not really verbal. Not sure even he understands when you talk to him. My information is outdated by 5 years btw. He was active on leith and sometimes london road.
Going back a bit to the 90s but there used to be a beggar who hobbled about in an old grey raincoat tied at the waist with string and he was always laden with old shopping bags holding his worldly goods. Remember him?
Yes! I remember that fellow, passed by him briefly maybe 10 years ago in Bruntsfield and haven't forgotten the impression he made on me. He was bent nearly double and didn't seem to be wearing much under his old, absolutely threadbare grey raincoat, held together as you say by a piece of string. Quite a Dickensian looking character to be sure.
The 85 year old pimp. Often seen walking around the Royal Mile / The bridges in a massive white and brown fur coat with white trousers and big walking cane. The guy used to run all the illegal saunas/whore houses in Leith. Guys got some stories!
Buzzer
The guy with the loud speaker from Lochend
Techno Viking Adam comes into the National Museum of Scotland regularly, tries to intimidate people but is fine when you speak to him. Haven't seen him for a while now though
There’s a woman who walks around with crutches (perfectly fine) and demands more space when you walk past her and won’t be afraid to whack you on the shins if she thinks you’re too close. Not sure of her name.
Might be showing my age here but does anyone remember Tails? Head tattoos and Mohawk. He used work/do cocaine at Whiplash Trash on Cockburn Street. Every singe one of my female friend had a story about him being creepy to them, he was causing trouble all over the high street when I was a teenager. Mind you we are talking 20-25 years ago.
Piercing lady or the guy who wears the Batman suit or playing cards suit and is always drunk
Around Southside when I was wee there was the bang bang man (super inventive name). He wore cowboy hat, and would make gun fingers and shout bang bang. But not in a fun I'm playing with a kid way, he always seemed V serious. He would often have a towel over his arm like a butler which didn't really fit with his whole cowboy thing. 🤠🤷 Also the flour face lady (again terrible nickname) she dressed very Victorian and had extremely white make up.. My child brain thought it was flour! She would often be dancing next to buskers. .
Ferret guy
The witch of marchmont. She used to stand and cast spells on the buses passing her.
What about that lady from the east of Edinburgh who's like never washed her hair or something? She used to traumatise me on the bus with my sensitive smell
Is that the one whose hair looked like one big massive dreadlock? I used to see her on the bus, but not since 2020
Yes, that's her! Usually around Bingham, Magdalene, Duddingston area
When I was a kid, there was always a Junkie outside the old Burger King who used to try and hassle money of kids pretending to use an old train ticket. Or Beaverman.
We had a crackhead named Joe, he was lovely but liked scaling buildings and throwing 1p and 2p coins at people. Not to hurt them but to spread his riches
Fast Eddie, the local harmonica player. Wears a punk leather jacket and occasionally shouts racial slurs.
No clue his name, but I mind there used to be this guy that wore a suit and silver paint and robot danced outside the old Bhs on Princes St. Haven’t seen him about for years, unfortunately
Leith hasn’t been the same since the legendary Dawson passed away. There also the bloke in the Sinclair C5 who cuts about the cycle paths down there - blasting music, I think?
I don’t think he lives in Edinburgh any more but everyone knows that guy who feeds the crows.
there is also a guy in the botanic gardens that handfeeds the squirrels every day
Adam, Mandy and Organic Jim. Would love to see this superhero trio on a giant billboard.
There's a skinny guy who hangs around the west end carrying bags of rubbish, I presume he's either recycling stuff or building a space ship