Virtual London - Ghosties

Things that go bump.....

by Emminent London Ghosthunter, Dr Hendrik Mangor A.S.D. C.D.M. & bar


London is said to be the most haunted city in the world! A place of uncouth gargoyles, leering pettifoggers, absurd manifestations and queer goings-on. And that's before the pubs close. And where, you might well ask, can one find a ghost in London? Well, pretty well anywhere really.

Why?

Why you should want to is another matter entirely: in general, when they do turn up, they lurk and have bad manners, which rather limits their entertainment value. However, your average ghost hunter is pleased by the simplest of things, so if you're contented with a few phantom footsteps and scuffling sounds there's plenty around to keep you happy. Ask any local housing authority and they'll turn up any number of cases of noisy but otherwise invisible poltergeists, almost all from families who want to be at the top of the rehousing list; though to be fair there was at least one case where the family liked their flat and went out of their way to get the ghost exorcised.

Smells!

You might even find the odd smell: many people have said they could smell burning meat on the spot at Smithfield where heretics and others used to be burned at stake. Though whether this has anything to do with that spot being just outside Bartholomew's Hospital is quite another matter.

Manifestations!

Actual visible manifestations are fewer and further between (though Bartholomew's is again a good place to start: the ghost of a monk callede Rahere turns up, now and again, in the church of St Bartholomew the Great, within the hospital boundaries. There's an added problem that most ghosts seem to have some sort of sell-by date on them. Such as the vicar, once apparently as clear and crisp as day in his regular manifestations, who now, when he can gather the momentum to show up at all, is so indistinct that it's said you can barely make out he's a clergyman.

Dissapointing!

When reading books on the subject it's a constant disappointment to find that the last recorded sighting was before you were even born (and often before most of your ancestors were born). My favourite was the number 7 bus that turns up in Kensington at 1.15am, causing oncoming drivers to swerve, and disappearing by the time they've turned their heads around to see what it was. This, sadly, has not been seen for over fifty years, no doubt due to the invention of the breathalyser.

Exorcism!

Exorcism generally works wonders, and many of the most interesting ghosts haven't been seen since someone took it into their head to not run away and explain to the afflicted phantom that they were actually dead and ought to bugger off out of it.

Just what is a ghost?

The question of what a ghost actually is, is raised by the appearance of a nice lady who had lived in a pub and moved off to a completely different area when she retired: she was later seen pottering around in the pub's cellar, but on investigation she proved to be alive and well at her new address.

The same happened when Elizabeth I was dying: she was seen several times wandering round Hampton Court, when her actual body was in a coma upstairs, shut up in her bedroom. One theory says that a ghost is a kind of psychic recording of some event that generated terrific emotional energy, and that it can be seen by anyone who is sensitive to it. Such would seem to be the case at a house in Hammersmith where a crowd of people in fog and Victorian pauper's costumes mill around in the living room: this seems to stem from a lynching that took place on the site when it was an open street.

Other ghosts seem quite rational, and able to communicate with the living, not least dead relatives who appear and verbally or otherwise steer their siblings and offspring away from impending and hidden danger (but if it's true that planes and trains due for massive disasters always have less passengers on board than they should, perhaps we have a natural ability to forecast danger, and in some people the appearance of a dead relative is a means of 'rationalising' this to the ego).

Where can I find ghosts in London?


Virtual London

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All images and information ⌐1996 Dr H. Mangor/Virtual London Ltd