The Paranormal Database

Hairy Creature

Location: E11 - Hollow Ponds area, Epping Forest, Wanstead
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: November 2008
Further Comments: During an evening fishing trip, Michael Kent reported encountering a dark hairy figure, standing around four feet tall. The creature vanished into the bushes.

Pusher

Location: E11 - Private house along Fairlop Road, Leytonstone
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Late 1960s
Further Comments: This poltergeist was blamed for pushing a pregnant woman down the staircase - fortunately her unborn child was unhurt. The presence also opened drawn curtains and closed doors, while one witness heard a woman sobbing on the landing.

Silhouette

Location: E11 - Snaresbrook, road opposite The Eagle public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late January 2010, 22:15h
Further Comments: While driving home, a man was distracted by his mobile phone ringing. At that moment he spotted the silhouette of a person in front of his car. Slamming on the brakes, the man was convinced he had hit someone, before realising there was no body, no damage to the car, and he had felt no actual impact. He also then realised his phone did not have the ringtone he had heard, and on checking, his mobile had no missed calls.

An old woodcut of a skeleton carrying a fiddle, grabbing a woman.

Seeking Skeleton

Location: E11 - St Mary's Church and graveyard, Overton Drive
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This skeletal ghost has been seen pushing a cart designed for corpses, looking for the body of his dead wife that was stolen by grave robbers. The grey female form seen around the graveyard is a poor widow who lost her husband only hours after they were married - she still searches for him today.

Cloaked Figure

Location: E11 - Wanstead Golf Club
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1977, morning
Further Comments: A cloaked figure was observed crossing the golf course close to the lake, heading in the direction of St Mary's Church. The figure disappeared shortly after being seen.

Catherine Tylney Long

Location: E11 - Wanstead Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Long died of complications from a stomach ailment following her husband's bankruptcy (although many myths incorrectly state she committed suicide after she lost her fortune to a series of bad judgements of an immoral lover). Her ghost lives on in the park. Elizabeth I's spectre is also rumoured to pass across the grounds in a coach, en route to meet the Earl of Leicester.

Smoker

Location: E11 - Wansted Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Along one corridor, where a murder was committed many years ago, a spot exists which is said to cause people to run after dark, such is the fear it generates. The murder is said to have occurred over tobacco and a pipe.

Prisoner

Location: E12 - Ilford police station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: One of the cells at this station was said to be haunted by a prisoner who took his own life (although an officer who researched the haunting could find no evidence that the suicide occurred).

Floating Woman

Location: E12 - Little Ilford Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 2000s
Further Comments: Four people in a group of eight watched a woman in Victorian clothing float into bushes before disappearing. She held her hands in front of her, as if begging or tied up, and was heard asking for help.

One Eyed Jack

Location: E12 - Manor Park
Type: Other
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: An urban myth, One Eyed Jack is said to live in empty properties with a large, scruffy dog. Like his name suggests, Jack only has one eye, and sets his dog on unsuspecting people so he can take their own eyes.

Hitchhiking Girl

Location: E14 - Blackwall Tunnel, Tower Hamlets
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1972
Further Comments: Killed in a motorcycle accident in the 1960s, this girl now flags down motorcyclists and asks for a lift to Leigh-on-Sea (in Essex); she always disappears from the back of the bike en route, and once the address is checked, it is discovered she died many years previously. Another variant of the story replaces the girl with the male rider of the crashed motorbike.

Black & White Man

Location: E14 - Canary Wharf Underground Station
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 28 December 2007
Further Comments: A black and white figure appeared on a colour photograph taken at this station. The figure, that of a young man, was not spotted when the photograph was taken, even though he was looking directly at the camera.

White Robe

Location: E14 - Commercial Road and Brunton Place
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa September 1907
Further Comments: A crowd of people chasing a white robed figure that had appeared in Commercial Road followed the figure into Brunton Place and into a house. The only person they found in the house was a woman who stood by a coffin which contained her recently deceased child. The crowd continued to search the area but could not find their ghost.

Painting of Horatio Nelson by Lemuel Francis Abbott.

Horatio Nelson

Location: E14 - Gun Inn, Docklands
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Thought to be waiting for Lady Hamilton, Nelson still patiently stands inside the public house.

Worker in Green

Location: E14 - HSBC building, floor 25, Canary Wharf
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2002
Further Comments: Killed in an accident during construction, a member of the crane crew dressed in green overalls now haunts the floor on which he died.

Laugh

Location: E14 - Northern end of Church Street (now Newell Street), Limehouse
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1827
Further Comments: Mr and Mrs Dickenson were repeatedly troubled by a loud chuckling laugh emanating from their bedroom wall.

Bangladeshi Man

Location: E14 - Private residence, Aberfeldy Village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2014-2015
Further Comments: A person living in this residence reported spotting the presence of an older Bangladeshi man who vanished on the staircase. Cold spots could be felt in the same location by multiple witnesses.

Vicar with Walking Cane

Location: E14 - Ratcliff Wharf, Limehouse
Type: Experimental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1971
Further Comments: The Vicar of Ratcliff Cross was once a popular tale in the area - two hundred years ago, the holy man would murder rich visitors to his church for their money. Now the preacher is content with making fleeting appearances near the riverside. Or rather not, as the whole story was invented in 1972 by a paranormal investigator to see if any witnesses came forward. That they did, and several authors mentioned the case in their works, without questioning the source.

Grinning Man

Location: E15 - Channelsea Depot, Stratford
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: June - December 1994
Further Comments: A former British Rail employee reported seeing a tall man wearing a cape and top hat standing by a hangar. He had a terrible grin and a mouth full of white teeth, and immediately vanished, leaving the witness very cold and apprehensive. A few months later, in the same area, the witness felt a strong tug at her bag that almost pulled her over; she spun around expecting to see a colleague, but no one was in sight.

Fireman in Brass Helmet

Location: E15 - Old Fire Station on Broadway, and new site at Romford Road, Stratford
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Seen by staff at the fire station, the ghost is said to be Godfrey Netherwood, a man from the late nineteenth century with an interest in paranormal happenings. This spirit now appears to have migrated to a new home at the newer station.

Freddy Fredericks

Location: E15 - Theatre Royal
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Midnight (reoccurring)
Further Comments: The builder of the theatre, Freddy now looks after the building. He is said to walk around at midnight, a small, tubby man dressed in brown, radiating friendliness, and has been caught on camera at least once. His initials are painted on an archway, and if removed it is said the theatre will fall.

Choking

Location: E15 - West Ham Polytechnic
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: The sounds of someone being choked to death have been reported coming from the science laboratories here, followed by a woman's scream.

Savage Woman

Location: E16 - Connaught Tavern
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The former home of a suicide, the spectre of this semi-mad woman has been seen on at least one occasion - she terrified a staff member as they entered a bedroom, sending them running.

Workman

Location: E17 - Blackhorse Road Underground Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The station is said to be haunted by the ghost of a workman who died during the construction. A figure has been observed on the platform late at night, and his footsteps heard in other parts of the station.

White Lady

Location: E17 - Council house, Cooper Avenue, Walthamstow
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1969
Further Comments: Shortly after moving in, a family demanded to be relocated after a white lady manifested in front of a four year old boy and ordered the child to leave. The family dog refused to enter the boy's bedroom.