Virtual London - Ghosties (continued)...

There are a number of kinds of places that seem to be prone to ghosts. Hospitals are said to be rife, though administrators are apparently reluctant to admit that because the buggers (ghosts, not administrators) (well, both actually, on thinking about it) usually turn up when someone's about to die, which is thought to be not good for public morale.

There is a grey lady who turns up on occasion at St Thomas's hospital (8th floor of the old Victorian bit) opposite the houses of Parliament. She's turned up a few harmless enough manifestations, though her latter appearances have tended to be ministering to people who were about to shuffle off their mortal coil.

Underground stations are another promising source for investigation. Elephant and Castle (Bakerloo/Northern lines) has some phantom footsteps (after hours, natch), while Covent Garden (Piccadilly Line) timeshares a famous actor with the local Adelphi Theatre.

Some come and go, such as the tall chap who appeared to navvies digging the Victoria Underground Line near Vauxhall, which led them to believe they'd passed through an old plague pit. This sounds a bit dubious, as I was under the impression that tunnel planners go out of their way to avoid such things, as does the Piccadilly Line somewhere near Kensington. Theatres have plenty of ghosts, which is pretty inevitable, what with actors being so fond of public appearances. The most recent was during the run of The Lady in Black, which had people flocking to look for the vague darkly dressed female figure who sometimes appeared in one of the boxes. No doubt the play was all right as well, though we have to suspect the possibility of a PR stunt.

The Theatre Royal at Drury Lane probably has the most famous ghost, who only appears before or during a successful run. Strangely he hasn't been seen for ages, so quite where that leaves Cats, which has been on there forever but not quite as long as The Mousetrap, we just don't know.

Pubs seem to be prone to ghosts. Many of these amount to little more than noises, which might indicate their state of inebriation when they died. The famous one in Hampstead, where Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, shot her lover, seems to be unexpectedly immune to haunting. But in general, landlords often make the most of any such incidents in their history, as was the case with the Jack the Ripper in Whitechapel; though on at least one occasion a landlord is said to have been sacked by his brewery for taking too great an interest in his ghost who had long black hair, leaned out of windows, and was called Sarah.

What you won't find is a surfeit of headless earls. The only one I know of was at Holland House, long since demolished, and he was probably the archetype for the cliche. What you also won't find here or in any other guide is many specific addresses for private houses, or other locations. This reputedly stems from a law case in the early part of this century where a landlord claimed that his property had become impossible to let after certain of the more zealous members of our tabloid press had given an excess of publicity to its haunting. This led to his being awarded vast sums in damages (over ú200 Sterling!) and a complete withdrawal into vagueness on the part of writers on the supernatural.

Strange but true, they always had been vague anyway, this case just gave them an opportunity to carry on that way. Which is why I won't, or rather can't, tell you the address of the notable house on a posh road in Chelsea, which has billions of ghosts and sounds well worth making the acquaintance of the owners. Failing that, you'll just have to loiter in the street and hope to catch sight of the phantom bear that's supposed to turn up in the area from time to time.

Some addresses can be given, of course. The Tower of London, for instance, or Hampton Court. These are both ancient and extremely haunted places. The Tower has seen so many bloody deeds done over the centuries that it's almost inevitable that anyone who used to be anyone is going to turn up there for a quick moan. Sir Walter Raleigh, I understand, can actually be seen taking a stroll in the grounds, though as is the way of things most of the really interesting manifestations happen out of public view in the White Tower or at night, when there's only a sleepy beefeater to see them.

Hampton Court sounds more promising for the beginner. There's a nice old lady here called Mrs Something or other who's prone to walking through the visitors. Some see her, some don't. Also a couple of Henry VIII's wives (some of whom also do matinees at the Tower): Catherine Howard runs around screaming and banging on the chapel door and all sorts of other things. Some owners are quite content to have people turn up, such as the bookshop in Berkeley Square. Although the premises have a long history of haunting stories, you probably won't find any ghosts when you get there. But the current proprietors will have little objection to you browsing and buying a book or two before you leave.

Another specific location is Cleopatra's Needle, on the Embankment. Apparently of all the people that drown themselves in the Thames, the statistically greater number launch themselves from by here, which some say suggests one of those goading phantoms that gets in to your head and puts uncouth ideas there.

There was another such at a big house in Ealing, which prompted at least twenty people to launch themselves from its tower but that's been knocked down now and replaced by a block of modern flats which has to content itself with the occasional strange noise after closing time. I'm told I mustn't go into tremendous detail here, which is a pity, because most ghost stories are andecdotal, often of the 'friend of a friend' variety, long on detail, short on specifics.

However, there are a few ghosts that seem to be well attested and still turn up fairly regularly, so I'll content myself with mentioning some of them. If you're planning ahead, there's a manifestation due at around midnight in July 2005 at a churchyard in Hammersmith. If anyone can provide more specific details than that, the address is below.

I suppose I should say that the details presented at this site are all secondhand and have not been checked by the author or the publisher, which means that they will not be responsible for anything whatsoever that you might decide to do as a result of reading this. Because we all know that it's not true don't we and that as rational people you wouldn't do anything silly and that if you did you would be too rational to expect us to accept responsibility for the consequences of your own folly. Life is fiction. Caveat emptor. Obviously you want to take this further or you wouldn't have read this far.

The Fortean Times is a wonderful magazine, now monthly and containing all manner of weird and wonderful reports from around the world, not just ghosts and not just London and it's also a good source of book reviews and contacts for further magazines. Its small ads are a source of ineffable delight for the supernatural researcher. They run a web site which is a veritable cornucopia of interesting and unlikely things, which also contains details on getting hold of the magazine.

Finally, please get in touch, whether to confirm the reports I've mentioned or argue about them, or to give contact or documentation details. Obviously we're primarily interested in London, but we can always find space for a good story. No, make that for a true story. Drop us a line at ghosties@virtual-london.co.uk