Thomas Wedders' nose was 19cm - or seven and a half inches - long, earning him a place in Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum in Piccadilly Circus. Edward Meyer, in charge of collections for the global chain of 'odditoriums', said: "We try to display art that you can't see anywhere else. This is a wax likeness made in our workshops based on a sketch that Robert Ripley did from a contemporary sketch."

Other attractions include three shrunken heads, an interactive exhibit of an electric chair, and a portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales, made using laundry lint.  Robert Ripley was a US newspaper cartoonist-turned-collector who travelled the world in the 1920s and 1930s in search of the bizarre.

He died in 1949 but his spirit lives on in a global empire of the strange that includes 30-odd odditoriums, including a smaller Believe It Or Not in Blackpool. But the 500 exhibits stuffed into the London version is the company's most sustained assault on the British tourism market.

Also on public display is a 10ft section of the Berlin Wall (bought personally by Mr Meyer), a 15ft x 10ft image of Ray Charles made from 8,000 Post-it notes, and a stuffed five-legged cow.

At last! A reason to collect laundry lint!

There were structural problems to overcome...

The original was here