The Paranormal Database

Orange Triangle

Location: E17 - Skies over Walthamstow
Type: UFO
Date / Time: 18 October 1996
Further Comments: Two children reported seeing a large orange triangular shaped object above them, making a funny noise.

Woman in Black

Location: E17 - The Grange Flats, Lynmouth Road
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Winter, 1970
Further Comments: A witness recalled how she had been visited by a phantom woman in black during her childhood at these flats. The figure appeared solid, with a pale face, dark long wavy hair, and with a white rope sash around her waist. The entity asked the young girl 'Do you know who I am?', before appearing to be pulled back by an invisible force.

Strange Feelings

Location: E17 - Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre public house, Walthamstow
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 2013
Further Comments: A paranormal team were called in after staff reported feeling ill at ease in the former theatre's dressing room.

Raining Stones

Location: E18 - General area of Woodford
Type: Other
Date / Time: August 1920
Further Comments: It was reported that stones rained down from the sky in this area for three days.

Short Hairy Creature

Location: E18 - Love Lane area, Woodford Bridge
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: November 2008
Further Comments: A local paper reported that Irene Dainty encountered a four foot, hairy creature with large feet and animal-like eyes close to her home. The creature ran off and jumped over the wall of the nearby Three Jolly Wheelers public house.

Crowd Puller

Location: E2 - 132 Teesdale Street (demolished 1958)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: February 1938
Further Comments: This polt outbreak started off as 'normal', tapping and cries being heard, and furniture moved. However, this 'haunting' quickly became a media circus, and attracted a large public crowd (some 2000 people, according to the Dairy Express at the time) to gather outside the home the hope of seeing something. Many believe the outbreak to have been a deliberate hoax, and Nandor Fodor told the press that nothing supernatural had occurred in his presence.

Cries and Screams

Location: E2 - Bethnal Green Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1981
Further Comments: A station master working alone in the station office late at night heard the soft sounds of children crying. As time went by, the cries grew louder and were joined by the screams of women. He ran from the office. One hundred and seventy-three people died in the station in a single accident during the Second World War, the vast majority being women and children.

Woman in Brown

Location: E2 - Gibraltar public house (no longer standing), Bethnal Green
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Landlord John Harris was said not to by an easy man to live with, although he turned his life around after encountering a phantom woman in brown sitting in his pub. The ghost warned him that if he failed to turn his life around, his daughter would come to a violent end. The apparition then vanished. Even though John became a better man, his daughter still ended up being hanged for an unknown crime.

Woman in Black & Grey

Location: E2 - Nag's Head public house, Hackney Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1968
Further Comments: This aging woman dressed in dark clothing has a grey shawl draped over her bony shoulders, and once haunted the basement. After a series of seances, the ghost disappeared for good.

White Lady

Location: E2 - Sutton House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: The phantom woman or women who haunt this building are not alone - the sound of a wailing hound has been heard, and disembodied voices emanate from empty rooms.

Sounds of Murder

Location: E2 - Ye Olde Axe, Hackney Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1970s
Further Comments: While the public house was undergoing major rebuilding work, the remains of two bodies were recovered from beneath it - the sounds that followed, coming from the building late at night convinced many the dead did not appreciate being disturbed.

Swan Eater

Location: E20 - Lea River, Olympic Park
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: Late 2011
Further Comments: Users of the river had reported the swan population had been dropping, and in November 2011 one witness watched a large Canada goose being quickly pulled under the water. Opinions of what is snacking on the local bird life have ranged from the exotic (escaped or released alligator or python) to the reasonable (catfish or pike).

Florrie Clark

Location: E3 - Ancient Briton public house, Glaucus Street (now demolished)
Type: Manifestation of the Living
Date / Time: 1975
Further Comments: A worker at the pub reported seeing the ghost of a former landlady, even though she was still alive and living a county away.

Old Lady

Location: E3 - Barton House, Bow Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1977
Further Comments: A family living here reported encountering the ghost of an elderly lady wearing slippers and a white apron. She was said to tamper with electrical items and would throw small items around the rooms. The haunting is thought to have stopped when the family moved out.

Lifetime Drinkers

Location: E3 - Black Swan public house, Bow Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A Zeppelin raid killed many people here during the First World War, and now they sometimes return to continue their pints. Two particularly active ghosts are said to be Cissie and Sylvia Reynolds, daughters of the landlord.

Phantom Flusher

Location: E3 - Bow Bells public house, 116 Bow Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Early 1970s
Further Comments: A 'ghost' was blamed for the haunting in the woman's restroom, with locked doors being opened and the toilets flushing themselves, though recently a former employee at the building has said that the phantom was invented to generate trade.

Disapproving Man

Location: E3 - Driver's Arms public house?
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1979
Further Comments: A poltergeist outbreak here in the late 1970s was attributed by a medium to a Victorian tenant who disliked women who drank!

A nineteenth century illustration of Spring Heeled Jack.

Vomited Flames

Location: E3 - House along Bearhind Lane and/or in Old Ford (area since redeveloped)
Type: Other
Date / Time: 20 February 1838
Further Comments: Jane Alsop is believed to have become one of Spring Heeled Jack's first victims when she opened her front door at night to whom she believed to be a policeman. Instead, she found a figure wearing a helmet and tight-fitting white clothing. The figure's eyes burnt with fire and he had claw-like hands. The figure attacked Alsop, but her screams alerted her sister who ran to the rescue. Jack leapt away into the darkness.

Nurse?

Location: E3 - New property on the site of the old St. Andrews Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010
Further Comments: One property owner reported an entity which likes quiet at night - it turns the TV volume down and woke up someone snoring with a loud 'shhh!'.

George

Location: E3 - St Andrews Hospital (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1976
Further Comments: Three workers installing two new lifts on the site watched as a shimmering white shape appeared next to them, resembling a heat haze, before it disappeared a couple of seconds later. Mentioning it to the nurses, they said it may have been 'George', a poltergeist-like entity who moved things around unless they said hello to him as they started their shift.

Man on Horseback

Location: E4 - Chingford Mount Cemetery, Old Church Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The ghostly galloping rider seen crossing this area of land must at times dismount - disembodied human footsteps have been heard on the paths, as have strange voices.

A Problem like Maria

Location: E5 - Congress Hall, Clapton
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1930s
Further Comments: The hall was a training base for Salvation Army officers, many of whom reported seeing a phantom woman dressed in a grey nurse's uniform. She was believed to have been Maria, a lady who killed her child and concealed the body within the building.

Basement Lurker

Location: E7 - Traveller's Rest public house, Cemetery Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A cloaked figure is reported to haunt the shadows of the cellar.

Bear Hunt

Location: E8 - Hackney marshes
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 27 December 1981, and May 2012
Further Comments: Four children reported seeing a bear in the marshland at Hackney in 1981- investigators discovered large paw prints in the snow but failed to find the animal. In 2012, student Helen Murray took two photographs of a large black haired creature in the area.

Sleeping Nurse

Location: E8 - Mothers Hospital (no longer operational), Hackney
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century?
Further Comments: Nurses on the verge of falling asleep would feel a light tap on the shoulder. Legends stated a nurse was responsible for the death of an infant due to dozing on duty; she killed herself and her ghost ensured no-one made the same mistake.