The Paranormal Database

Cock Lane at night, London.

The Cock-Lane Ghost

Location: EC1 - 20 Cock Lane (no longer standing)
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: October 1762
Further Comments: No longer standing, this building was plagued by an outbreak of internationally famous poltergeist activity that centred itself around a young child in the household, Elizabeth Parsons.

Burning Martyrs

Location: EC1 - Area around the Martyrs' Memorial, Smithfield
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The location where a total of 277 Protestants were once burnt alive for their beliefs, some have reported hearing their cries and screams late at night. Less fortunate people have also reported the smell of burning flesh.

Headless Duke

Location: EC1 - Charterhouse
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The Duke of Norfolk, who spent much of his time and money here, lost his head after upsetting Queen Elizabeth and now ascends the staircase of the great hall. Outside the buildings, a monk has been seen flitting between the courtyards of Washhouse and Masters.

Anne Naylor

Location: EC1 - Chick Lane (later renamed West Street), demolished 1940s/50s
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1940s
Further Comments: Anne Naylor was murdered by a mother and daughter after she tried to escape their employment. Anne's sister was also murdered when she tried to investigate Anne's disappearance. The bodies were dumped in Chick Lane; soon the area was awash with tales of a pale white woman who had started to haunt the area. The daughter eventually confessed to the crimes, and she and her mother were executed in 1768.

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'.

Vanishing Person

Location: EC1 - Holborn Library
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2010s
Further Comments: An archivist using a mirror in the third floor bathroom glimpsed a person walk behind her and turned to find nobody there. An art curator visiting the then-unused fourth floor was violently pushed in the shoulder by an unseen presence, and a cleaner working in the basement ran from it in terror, refusing to say what she had seen or return to the library. Strange lights have also been witnessed in the reserve stock room and doors open and slam by themselves.

Victorian Lady

Location: EC1 - House of Detention, Sans Walk
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The apparition of a lady in a Victorian dress has been reported walking around the building (what is left of it), while phantom footsteps and the soft crying of a lost child have also been reported.

Joseph Grimaldi (public domain).

Grimaldi the Clown

Location: EC1 - Sadler's Wells Theatre, Rosebury Avenue
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Once seen sitting in one of the boxes (which no longer exist), Joseph Grimaldi is still seen wearing his clown makeup, almost 200 years since his death.

Horned Figure

Location: EC1 - Smithfield
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1600s
Further Comments: This phantom figure was said to have danced over meat stalls while angry butchers and meat merchants tried to stab at it, striking only thin air.

Rahere

Location: EC1 - St Bartholomew's church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 01 July, 07:00h (Rahere) (reoccurring), others early twentieth century
Further Comments: This pious monk, who doubled as a jester in Henry I's court, is thought to be the man who built the church and has been reported standing by the altar. He quickly disappears if seen. Another figure was observed in the pulpit by a former Rector, who said the man wore clothing from the Reformation period. A different witness spotted a woman in a white dress, while others have claimed shuffling footsteps were heard around the building.

Pinkie

Location: EC1 - St Bartholomew's Hospital, West Smithfield
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Grace Ward (once known as Pinkie's Ward?) is reputedly home to a nurse in old fashioned dress. Some say that she killed herself after administering an overdose to a patient, while other stories say she was murdered by an insane patient in the lift (after which, the lift would never work correctly). Another ghostly nurse haunts Bedford Fenwick Ward, and is said to be comforting in nature. Another story, or another version of first story, says that the theatre lift in the King George the Fifth block is haunted by Jasmine, who smells strongly of floral perfume.

Figure in Photo

Location: EC1 - St Botolph's Church, Bishopsgate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1982
Further Comments: Appearing in a photograph taken by Mr Chris Brackley, the image bore up to intense scrutiny. Mr Brackley was later contacted by a builder who recognised the face of one that he had seen in a coffin in the church.

Red Haired Man

Location: EC1 - Sutton Arms public house, Carthusian Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1997
Further Comments: This smiling redheaded entity materialises only for a couple of seconds at a time, before vanishing as quickly as he appears. He has been described as elderly, dressed in old fashioned clothing, and wearing a large grin on his face.

Burning

Location: EC1 - The Elms, Smithfield (located outside Church of St Bartholomew the Great)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Hundreds of people were executed by being burnt alive outside the church during the reign of Henry VIII. One version of the ghost story says that screams and the crackling of fire is said to be heard, and the smell of burning flesh occasionally detected, while another (less dramatic) version has the haunting consist of groans and shuffling footsteps.

Robert

Location: EC1 - Viaduct Tavern
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: One of the ghosts which haunts this pub goes by the name of Robert. He may be responsible for the poltergeist actions that occur within this building.

Landlord

Location: EC1 - Ye Old Red Cow, Cloth Fair
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: 1981
Further Comments: Believed to be a former landlord (though the jury is out on his name), this phantom figure would sit upstairs and look down at the patrons for a short time after his death..

Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London.

Sarah Whitehead

Location: EC2 - Bank of England, Threadneedle Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1850s onwards
Further Comments: Sarah Whitehead's brother, Philip, worked at the Bank of England before being convicted and executed of forgery in 1812. When Sarah found out what had happened to Philip, her mind snapped and she spent every day for the remaining 25 years of her life visiting the bank, asking to see her brother. The black mourning clothes Sarah wore earned her the nickname 'The Black Nun'. In these cloths she is still occasionally seen in and around the garden of the bank.

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.

Fleeting Shadow

Location: EC2 - St Giles' Churchyard passageway
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Several reports in 1970s, last report 9:30pm 23 June 2004
Further Comments: This darkly coloured ghost is thought to be a former member of the clergy walking from his home to the church. He was last seen dressed in black standing by the gate of the church - he vanished as the witness approached.

Jimmy Garlickhythe

Location: EC2 - St James's Church, Garlick Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A mummified corpse that has been housed in the church since its rebuilding after the Great Fire of London, Jimmy's phantom has made several appearances since the Second World War.

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.

Persian Cat

Location: EC3 - All Hallows by the Tower, Great Tower Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1940
Further Comments: This phantom feline haunted the original church prior to its destruction by German bombers during the Second World War. In one story, a small group rehearsing Christmas carols claimed to have seen a phantom woman sitting on a chair. The figure disappeared and was replaced by a black cat which also vanished soon after.

Coughing

Location: EC3 - Alley linking St Mary At Hill and Lovat Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 03 November 2003
Further Comments: A person walking through the alley heard footsteps following behind and a loud cough - they spun around, but no one could be seen. They retraced their steps and looked up and down St Mary At Hill but still no one could be seen.

George and Vulture public house, St Michael's Alley, London.

Grey Lady

Location: EC3 - George and Vulture public house, St Michael's Alley
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The upper floor of this established public house is home to a phantom woman who drifts along its corridors.