The Paranormal Database

Lily Langtry

Location: W1 - 19 Dunraven Street, North Row
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Lily is not alone in this haunting - victims of hangings, Cavalier soldiers and a couple of headless men are also reported to have also been seen here.

Sarah Siddons

Location: W1 - 228 Baker Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The former home of the great eighteenth century actress, she is now seen as she passes through walls on the first floor.

Unknown Woman

Location: W1 - 25 Brook Street, George Frederic Handel's House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2001
Further Comments: Manifesting in Handel's former home, this woman's presence was also marked by the smell of perfume. The building next door may also be haunted by the same ghost - Jimi Hendrix reportedly saw her there during the 1960s. An exorcism in July 2001 should have put an end to her activities.

Shapeless Horror

Location: W1 - 50 Berkeley Square
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: The ghost that once resided here has been blamed for two deaths in the house - one man was found dead of 'shock', the other jumped through an upstairs window to escape the 'thing' that chased him. Another story tells that the ghost was laid to rest when a ghost hunter fired a silver bullet at the spirit as it appeared and lunged at him.

Old Man

Location: W1 - 53 Berkeley Square
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Seen glazing out of the window, it is thought that this seventeenth century gentleman's daughter eloped, and he waits for her return.

Voices

Location: W1 - Absolute Radio, No.1 Golden Square
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s / 2000s
Further Comments: Reputedly built on a plague victim burial site, this station's basement studio is said to be haunted by childrens' voices.

George Payne

Location: W1 - Albemarle Street
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: Two friends returning from a heavy nights drinking spotted their old friend George walking towards them. They assumed that George was on leave, as he was in the army, but when the friends approached, they could see the soldier's face to be grey and dead. They stopped and let George continue walking away. A few weeks later the pair found out that George had died fighting in New Zealand.

Cromwell

Location: W1 - Apsley House, aka the Wellington museum
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1832
Further Comments: Appearing only once, the ghost of Cromwell was seen by Wellington - the spectre warned the Iron Duke to let the 1832 Reform Bill through parliament. Wisely enough, the Iron Duke complied.

Naked Corpse

Location: W1 - Argyle Rooms, Regent Street
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: 26 December 1832
Further Comments: A female witness went into hysterics after she reportedly saw the naked body of a famous man, partly covered by cloth, lying on the floor. Later in the day, the man in question was discovered drowned in the Thames, wrapped around a piece of sail.

Naked Body

Location: W1 - Argyll Rooms (no longer standing), Argyll Street
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1828
Further Comments: A visitor to the playhouse was mortified to see a phantom body on the floor close to her seat. The body was mostly naked, partly covered by a cloak, and the visitor recognised the body as a friend. The following day news arrived that the friend had drowned in Southampton, around the time of the encounter.

Glowing Dachshund

Location: W1 - Baker Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1900s
Further Comments: A pet belonging to two women, the dachshund disappeared one day, though its phantom manifested several times along the road for a period of weeks afterwards.

Footprints

Location: W1 - Baker's Street to St John's Wood, northbound tunnel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s?
Further Comments: Bill, an underground track walker, sat down for a break while patrolling the line. He reported disembodied footprints which crunched down in the ballast and appeared before him. The footsteps went straight past him and stopped ten metres from his position. When he finished his rounds, one of his colleagues said that other people had also encountered the footsteps, and they belonged to a workman killed in the area.

Lord Nelson

Location: W1 - Brewer Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Prior to his final battle, Nelson reportedly visited an undertaker along this road and ordered his coffin. Nelson's shade has been seen looking into a window that once belonged to the business.

London Beer Flood Victim

Location: W1 - Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twenty-first century
Further Comments: The theatre was built partly on the site where the Meux and Company Brewery stood. An accident at the brewery in 1814 released 1.5 million litres of beer that destroyed homes and killed several people. It has been reported that a teenage victim haunts the theatre and can occasionally be heard giggling.

Admiral Tryon

Location: W1 - Eaton Place, Belgravia
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 22 June 1893
Further Comments: The solid looking form of Admiral Tryon appeared in front of several of his wife's friends at his home, at the exact moment he was going down with his ship in the Mediterranean.

Sergeant

Location: W1 - Former Vine Street Police Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1969
Further Comments: This officer of the law, who killed himself in a cell in the nineteenth century, keeps an eye on workers at the site.

Lost Children

Location: W1 - Georgian House Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: These children make infrequent appearances, as does the ghostly figure of a man.

Mrs Amphlett

Location: W1 - Hill Street, Mayfair
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 November 1779
Further Comments: In his home along this street, Lord Lyttleton woke and saw a woman in white standing by his bed (named by some as being a Mrs Amphlett) who warned him he would be dead within three days. At 11pm on the third day, he dropped dead into his butler's arms at Pitt Place, in Epsom. The illustration is Lyttleton's encounter from the publication 'The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century'.

Suicide

Location: W1 - Hotel Piccadilly, Room 537, Denman Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The ghost in this room was thought to have been a traveller who slit his wrists in the bathroom. Bumps and banging have woken those who have spent the night here.

Black Sally's Tree

Location: W1 - Hyde Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A tree in the park is rumoured to be haunted by Black Sally, who was murdered as she slept underneath the canopy. The tree no longer stands, though the rumours of ghosts continue. A clump of trees close to Lancaster Gate were also said to be haunted, this time by the groans and cries of a cancer-ridden man named Sammy. Finally, an elm tree was considered 'evil' and none of the local homeless population would spend a night close to it - the tree was said to whisper during the night, trying to convince any sleeping nearby to take their own lives.

Face

Location: W1 - Hyde Park Corner underground station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1978, early morning
Further Comments: Two members of staff were alarmed when they discovered an escalator working, though the electrical connection had been disabled. Walking into a room, one man reported hitting a spot so cold that his breath was visible, while the other worker collapsed in a state of shock. The latter claimed to have seen a strange face, and left the station before his shift ended, never to return.

Red Eyed Man

Location: W1 - John Snow public house, Broadwick Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This man with red eyes looks as if he is in terrible pain and sits alone in the furthest corner of the bar. Just outside the pub, a phantom water pump was seen several times, though it has vanished since a real one was installed.

Man Waiting

Location: W1 - Kingly Court, Beak Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Dressed in eighteenth century clothing, this figure walks around in a circle, whistling to himself (and badly, according to one account).

Footpads

Location: W1 - Lansdowne Passage (now called Lansdowne Row)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The shadowy figures reported here are those of criminals who made full use of the old passageways to escape from the law in the nineteenth century.

Woman on Staircase

Location: W1 - London Palladium, Argyll Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A red staircase and the surrounding passageways towards the back of the building are haunted by a rarely seen woman moving silently between them.