The Paranormal Database

Evil Monkey

Location: Outer London: Richmond - Unnamed vicarage
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1948
Further Comments: The vicar living here attempted to exorcise the ghost that had taken up residence. The ghost took the form of a monkey-like creature, although it could only be heard or 'felt', and would drive visitors away. The vicar regarded the entity as evil.

Horse Drawn Carriage

Location: Outer London: Slade Green - Maisonettes, Slade Green
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 1976 or 1977
Further Comments: While sitting in bed in his maisonette on the fourth floor, this witness was startled to see the tail end of a black liveried horse drawn carriage fade through his room and wall. He later learnt that a neighbour had died at exactly the time of his sighting. Soon after this, the now empty flat in which the neighbour had died became the scene of strong paranormal disturbances. Though the windows and doors were sealed, items in the building were smashed and thrown around, and it was not until an exorcism was carried out that the apartment fell silent.

Transparent Figure

Location: Outer London: South Ruislip, Hillingdon - South Ruislip Community Association and Community Centre
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 01 February 2013
Further Comments: Online communities were heavily debating CCTV footage which showed a transparent figure passing through doors and a metal barrier before vanishing. A former chairman of the building is said to have believed the site haunted and would say hello to the ghosts as he entered in an effort to placate them.

Man walking Dog

Location: Outer London: Stanmore - A41
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 13 October 1985
Further Comments: A driver reported to the police that he had just run over a man walking a dog - both pedestrian and animal had gone over his car bonnet in the collision, but when the driver stopped and climbed out of his vehicle, he could not find either man or dog, nor damage to his car.

Combusting Cat

Location: Outer London: Stanmore - Anmer Lodge nursing home
Type: SHC
Date / Time: January 1987
Further Comments: Peppi the cat enjoyed life at the nursing home, before exploding into blue flame with a bang and a flash. If the story is true, then Peppi could be a rare example of Spontaneous Feline Combustion.

Sounds of a Tornado

Location: Outer London: Stanmore - Honeypot Lane area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Nobody has been able to fully describe the entity that races around the area on cold dark nights, sounding like high wind and just as cold. It is speculated that the haunting is connected to a battle in which Roman soldiers fought.

Wanderer

Location: Outer London: Stanmore - Old Church Farm
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid eighteenth century
Further Comments: Once a rectory, the building was said to be haunted by a figure which emerged from a grave and entered the farm, before leaving the building and vanishing back into the grave.

Grey Nun

Location: Outer London: Stanmore - Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 13 November (reoccurring), although could have last been seen 30 November 2009
Further Comments: Built on the site of a nunnery, the hospital is now visited by a gliding figure that is thought to come from the former building.

Final Battle

Location: Outer London: Stanmore - Stanmore Common
Type: Legend
Date / Time: 61 AD
Further Comments: The common has been named as a contender for the last battle of Boudica, though Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson state this story may have come into being in the nineteenth century.

Scratching Old Lady

Location: Outer London: Twickenham - Ham House
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: According to the story, the spectre of a terrifying old woman was seen picking and scratching at a piece of wall by a child. After the child cried for help, the ghost disappeared. When the parents examined the wall, they found a secret hole containing evidence of a seventeenth century murder. The shade of a drunken cavalier has also been observed, said to have drowned in the nearby river after a night's heavy boozing, while a ghostly spaniel sometimes walks around the building.

Alexander Pope (detail), by Godfrey Kneller.

Alexander Pope

Location: Outer London: Twickenham - St Mary's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1830 onwards
Further Comments: The ghost of Pope returned to earth once his skull was stolen from his grave in 1830 - his form has been observed limping around the churchyard, chatting and mumbling to himself.

Woman with a Red Scarf

Location: Outer London: Uxbridge - Ickenham Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Winter evenings (reoccurring), 1950s onwards
Further Comments: This ghostly figure stands at the end of the platform, close to where she fell and was electrocuted. She sometimes waves to attract attention before vanishing.

V

Location: Outer London: Uxbridge - Skies over Hillingdon
Type: UFO
Date / Time: January 1985
Further Comments: Larger than a jumbo jet, this V shaped craft was only spotted for a few seconds before disappearing.

Walter & Liz

Location: Outer London: Wallington - Path between Croydon Road and London Road, Beddington Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Local legend has the ghosts of Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh frequenting this area together, dating from when the latter lived at nearby Carew Manor.

Cavalier

Location: Outer London: Wallington - Private house, Mallinson Road, Beddington
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: November 1972
Further Comments: A couple were disturbed in their bedroom one night by a ghostly Civil War cavalier.

Older Lady

Location: Outer London: Wallington - Private residence
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: 1961, late summer
Further Comments: A new mother was hanging out washing in the garden, with her baby in a pram nearby. The older lady next door popped her head over the fence and asked how the baby was doing. The mother chatted with the lady, but after taking the empty washing basket back indoors, suddenly realised the old lady had died before the baby was born.

Sir Walter Raleigh

Location: Outer London: Wallington - St Mary the Virgin churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Raleigh's headless body was returned to his wife's family in Beddington; his ghost said to walk along a path in the churchyard.

A photograph of a raven.

Raven

Location: Outer London: West Drayton - West Drayton church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1883 (another version says circa 1749)
Further Comments: For many years, this large black bird haunted the church and its grounds - it would tap and peck at coffins, sit on the pews, and generally create a nuisance.