As you might imagine with the London Underground there are quite a lot of reports of ghostly goings on, so we’ve compiled some of the more interesting ones which mostly seem to relate to events even prior to the existence of the underground stations.
- Beacontree Station is the scene of the first rather unusual haunting back in 1992. While working late, a station employee heard the office door rattling, so rather nervously began to climbed upstairs.
Part way up he felt like there was someone behind him and on turning round saw the figure of a woman standing behind him. The strange thing was – the women had no face. Her face was completely smooth and featureless.
He asked one of his colleagues the next day about her and discovered several other people had seen the same woman at various times in the station. Her identity is completely unknown.
- Farringdon Underground Station is home to a girl called Naylor who was apparently murdered on the site in 1758. Screams are often heard in the station when it’s quiet, resulting in her being nicknamed the Screaming Spectre. There have however not been any reports of anyone seeing her.
- Liverpool Street Station is said to be haunted by at least two ghosts.
The first is believed to be Rebecca Griffiths who was a patient at the Hospital of the Star of Bethlehem, referred to at the time as an asylum for the insane. She was buried in the hospital without the coin she always carried and is said to still be looking for it.
The second is more recent as there have been many reports of a gentleman in white overalls walking around the station who can only be seen on CCTV monitors. No one has actually seen him while standing on the station platforms.
- The Aldgate Underground Station haunting has only seemingly occurred once, but the ghost of a woman was seen stroking the hair of a workman by his colleague. Seconds later the workman touched a 20,000 volt wire but survived apparently uninjured.
- Queensway Station has reputedly quite a famous resident in the form of Sir Winston Churchill who has been seen sitting at the station. During his lifetime he lived close to this station and would likely have used it on occasion.
- The Elephant and Castle station has both been seen and reputedly photographed entering trains, but is never actually seen leaving. She has been seen many times by both staff and commuters. [Still trying to find a copy of the photograph to verify].
- Just outside South Island Place station (near Stockwell), a trainee manager was sent to walk the tracks as part of his safety training. Part way down the track he passed a man dressed in overalls carrying a tilly lamp working beside the tracks and exchanged a few words.
He mentioned this on existing the tunnel and a search party was immediately dispatched as no one else was meant to be in the tunnel at the time. However no one could be found. The manager later discovered that this gent had been seen several times in the past along the same stretch of track.
- A final one that actually isn’t a ghost story but could cause a few is at 23/24 Leinster Gardens. If you look carefully at the houses something unusual becomes apparent – numbers 23 & 24 have no front door.
In reality the houses were knocked down with the advent of the Metropolitan and District Line between Paddington and Bayswater stations when the old steam trains needed a vent hole to remove excess smoke. Rather than split the houses, the builders decided to create a false front thus making it appear as if the row continued.
Behind the frontage is a large open space where trains can be heard rattling by, thus likely causing a few to wonder if they’ve just encountered a ghostly Tube train. If you scroll nearly to the bottom of this page there are some pictures of the back of the building.
