London: the most haunted place on Earth?
Highgate Cemetery, London.
by Steven Knipp
As Halloween approaches, it’s time to embrace dark nights and even darker tales. With 900 years of violent history, London is the perfect city in which to embark on a chilling tour of some ghostly destinations.
According to the folks who know about such things (i.e, amateur ghost-busters and certified ghost hunters), whenever a human being meets a sudden or violent death, ghosts are created. The soul inside the body isn’t aware of what has happened... and so their spirit wanders the world of the living.
By that standard, many people believe that the city of London is the single most haunted place on the planet. That's thanks to the 900 years of its often-blood-soaked history, which includes wars and invasions, murders, beheadings and all types of assorted mischief.
It’s true, most dead Londoners tend to stay put. There are, however, apparently hundreds of others who do not. There are more than one hundred locations in London in which frightening phantoms have been seen countless times. And lest we be quick to laugh, these frightening funeral visions have often been reported by presumably reliable witnesses — doctors, lawyers, journalists and soldiers amongst them.
London’s supernatural encounters vary from strange noises to full-blown apparitions of old men, young women, malevolent monks and creepy kids. Then there’s psychokinesis, the phenomenon of unexplained moving objects. Or icy cold spots, when the air around a person will chill for no reason.
London after dark.
It’s little wonder then that aside from being super creepy after sunset, London is also home to the world’s most prestigious ghost-hunting organisation. And considering that the Ghost Club of Britain [currently boasting over 300 international members] was founded in 1862, it’s safe to say that many of its earliest followers are now ghosts themselves. Unaware that their ‘live-by-date’ has expired?
To substantiate supernatural sightings, the Ghost Club sends its members to visit the scenes of ghostly visions. Arriving at a haunted location — any locale from an old mansion or a church, to famous graveyards like Highgate Cemetery, to over 20 London pubs said to be haunted — the Club’s supporters first seal the doorways with cotton wool (to discount movements caused by natural breezes). They then dust hallways with flour in order to find ghostly footprints.
They even slather staircase railings with petroleum jelly to pinpoint possible phantom fingerprints. In decades past, this practice was rumoured to have inadvertently created some entirely new ghosts when members failed to remove the jelly from the railings—before the elderly owners of the haunted house awake and descended the steep staircase. Oops!
One of the best ways to get a grip on London’s ghost scene is to join one of the city’s after-dark walking tours. There are several companies to choose from—my favourite is London Walks, which offers 140 different tours, including Ghosts of the Old City, and Ghosts of the West End.
As a health and safety precaution, London Walks has limited the number of walkers to just 15 per tour instead of 30, with more tour slots added for the Halloween weekend.
Some years ago, while in the British capital on a menacingly misty October evening, I was able to chat with the excellent guide (a retired historian) who escorted our group of 10 amateur ghost hunters through London’s old East End.
Speaking with a soft Scottish burr, which went well with his ghostly stories, he told me, “We get ghost-lovers from all over the world. Like you, they sometimes ask if I’ve ever seen a ghost. A number of years ago in St. James’ Park, our group saw a woman who just suddenly disappeared from the pathway — right in front of us! Even for me, it was startling. This is unusual as most ghosts are only seen by one person, which makes most people skeptical that they exist. There have been one or two ghosts which have been seen too often not to be real.”
ghostclub.org.uk
@GhostClub1862