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Ghosts, Folklore and Forteana of the London Underground

Faceless Woman

Location: Dagenham - Becontree Underground Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1992
Further Comments: One story claims that an employee encountered this ghostly blonde woman who wears a dress, with no face, on the platform. She faded away after being seen.

Faceless Woman

Location: E11 - Beacontree Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1992
Further Comments: A station employee working alone heard the door to his office rattle several times. Unnerved, the man began to climb upstairs to find a colleague but felt he was being watched. Turning around, he saw a woman standing there with long blond hair but no face - her features were completely smooth. Talking to his colleague a short time later, the employee discovered that he was not the only person to have seen her.

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.

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.

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.

Anne Naylor

Location: EC1 - Farringdon Underground Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The odd screams that have been heard in this area are attributed to Naylor, thirteen year old girl murdered on this site in 1758. She is now referred to as 'the Screaming Spectre'.


The Central Line of Bank Underground Station, London.

Sarah Whitehead

Location: EC2 - Bank Station, Central Line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Sarah seen late twentieth century, knocking in 1982
Further Comments: Possibly the same figure that haunts the Bank of England; in life this poor girl could not handle news that her brother had died and returned daily to his office to meet him. Dressed in black clothing, she is affectionately called 'the Black Nun'. A worker once chased what he thought was an old lady locked in the station during the early hours of the morning, but she vanished down a corridor with no possible exit. In addition, at least one employee has reported something knocking on an empty lift door from the inside, way after normal closing time.


Liverpool Street Station, London.

Rebecca Griffiths

Location: EC2 - Liverpool Street Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Rebecca 1780-1812, man circa 2000
Further Comments: Once the site of the first Hospital of the Star of Bethlehem, an asylum for the insane, the area was haunted by the screams of Griffiths who was buried without a coin she compulsively held on to when locked away here. Her ghost also had the habit of exciting other inmates by peering through their cell windows. More recently there have been reports by underground staff of a man in white overalls on the platforms that can only be seen on CCTV.

Old Woman

Location: EC3 - Aldgate Underground Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid-to-late-twentieth century
Further Comments: This old woman was seen by an engineer as it stroked his friend's hair, seconds before the co-worker touched a live wire which sent 20,000 volts through his body. Remarkably, he survived. Phantom footfalls have also been reported coming from down the tunnel, abruptly finishing.

Silhouette

Location: EC3 - King William Tunnel, Under London Bridge (disused underground tunnel)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s?
Further Comments: An image taken by a photographer shows what appears to be a silhouetted figure along this tunnel, though no one else was there at the time. A medium called to the location claimed that the ghost was that of a man who died while breaking up a fight.

Ashen-faced Girl

Location: EC4 - Northern Line into St Paul's tube station
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: On four consecutive days, a commuter on an early train sat opposite a girl whose long black hair covered her face, with only the tip of her nose visible. On the fourth day, as the commuter left the carriage, he realised that the ashen-faced girl was looking straight at him. The commuter never saw the girl again but was convinced that she was a ghost.

Steam Train

Location: N2 - East Finchley to Wellington Sidings underground
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This stretch of the Northern Line is reputed to be haunted by a spectral steam engine.

Sounds of a Train

Location: N6 - Highgate High Level Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Started during the Second World War, the station was never finished, though locals sometimes reported the sound of a steam train along where the track was supposed to have been laid. One rational explanation put forward is that the sounds of the trains came from nearby stations which were active until the 1970.


Platform 10 of King's Cross Station, London.

Boudica's Grave

Location: NW1 - King's Cross Station, Platform 10
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: The final resting ground of the warrior queen is reported to be under this busy platform.

Distressed Woman

Location: NW1 - King's Cross underground station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: May 1998
Further Comments: A witness spotted a woman in her twenties with long brown hair, wearing jeans and t-shirt. The figure was kneeling at the side of the corridor with her arms outstretched, and appeared distressed and crying. Someone walking in the opposite direction then walked through the woman. The witness said that upon reflection, it was like watching a repeating piece of film.

Bruno Hauptmann

Location: NW1 (possible) - Bakerloo Line
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1983
Further Comments: A photograph of a ghostly figure taken by Karen Collett while travelling on the Bakerloo Line later transpired to be the waxwork figure of Bruno Hauptmann, although it is still unclear how Hauptmann's form (with added bolts of lightning) managed to manifest on the photograph.


Underground London.

London Subterraneans

Location: Other London - No fixed location
Type: Other
Date / Time: Current
Further Comments: This legend, which seemingly 'does the rounds' every few years, states that a group of Londoners began to live underground in the late nineteenth century, and now they have mutated. These subterraneans live off the junk food we discard in the underground tube stations and the odd commuter if they are discovered alone on the train.

Churchill

Location: Outer London: Queensway - Queensway Station, Central Line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: Witnessed waiting on the platform, Sir Winston Churchill once lived quite close to the station.

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.


The Northern Line platform of the Elephant & Castle underground station.

Vanishing Woman

Location: SE1 - Elephant & Castle Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Northern Line unknown, Bakerloo woman seen twentieth century?
Further Comments: Footfalls and rapping echo around the Northern Line in the station after it has closed - on investigation, no sound source can be found. Another story says the last train of the night on the Bakerloo Line is haunted by a lone girl who walks from the last carriage to the tip of the train, vanishing as she reaches the front carriage.

Nun

Location: SE1 - London Road Depot (Bakerloo Line)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This area is thought to be haunted by a nun who is connected to a nearby Roman Catholic school.

Slamming Doors

Location: SE11 - Kennington Loop
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s onwards
Further Comments: All passengers disembark at Kennington and the carriages are checked just prior to trains turning in the loop. However, as the train drivers sit waiting in the dark loop tunnel, at least two have reported hearing the connecting carriage doors open and close as if someone is moving from the rear of the train towards the driving compartment.

Crying

Location: SE11 - Side street by Kennington underground station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1984, around 03:00h
Further Comments: Two employees at the station, while smoking outside and sitting on a wall, heard a woman sobbing no further than three or four yards (2.7 - 3.6 metres) away, although no one was visible. As the crying moved away, one of the workers followed the sound, which travelled down the road and into a side street behind the station, where it ceased.

Cries of the Trapped

Location: SE13 - Lewisham Station, & St Johns area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 04 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A crash in 1957, caused partly by fog, killed ninety people and injured over one hundred. It is their cries which can be heard on the anniversary on the accident. Another version of the story says the phantom screams date to the Second World War.

Reflection

Location: SE17 - Bakerloo line, Elephant & Castle and other stations along the line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is reported that occasionally, while travelling northbound, some passengers can see the reflection of someone sitting next to them, even though there is no one in the seat.

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