The Paranormal Database

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.

Silent Woman

Location: Other London - Railway line between London & Carlisle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: Dressed in black and wearing a veil, this figure has been seen sitting quietly and disappearing without warning. She is believed to be a bride whose new husband had stuck his head out of a window and was decapitated. Found holding his body once they reached London, totally insane, her spirit has been making the journey since.

Sky above London.

Fiery Sword

Location: Other London - Skies over the city
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1832
Further Comments: The start of the great Cholera Epidemic in 1832 was accompanied by a vision witnessed by thousands, of a burning fiercely sword hanging over the city.

The sky over the City of London.

Darkness

Location: Other London - Skies over the city
Type: Other
Date / Time: 19 August 1763
Further Comments: London was briefly covered by a darkness during the day, blacker than an eclipse.

Faceless Woman

Location: Outer London: Barking and Dagenham - Becontree Underground Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1992
Further Comments: One story claims that an employee encountered this ghostly blonde, faceless woman, who wears a dress, on the platform. She faded away after being seen.

Old Lady

Location: Outer London: Barking and Dagenham - Cottage along Five Elms (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: August 1930
Further Comments: After his rented home was allocated to nursing staff, George Gardiner refused to move to a cottage ten yards down the road as he and his wife believed the new property to be haunted by an old lady. The courts instructed George to find a new place to live.

Opening Doors

Location: Outer London: Barking and Dagenham - Eastbury House, Barking
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: A door in one of the rooms would open and close by itself.

Man in Checked Coat

Location: Outer London: Barking and Dagenham - Thames View (Council Estate), Barking
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s
Further Comments: With an unknown history, this ghost created poltergeist activity in a council home, throwing toys around and slamming doors open at night. When visible, the ghost would be seen heading towards the bedroom of a four-year-old boy.

Stabbed Woman

Location: Outer London: Barking and Dagenham - Valence House, Dagenham
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1975
Further Comments: This figure, appearing quite real, was last seen with a long knife jutting from her back.

Johnson

Location: Outer London: Barnet - Road between Barnet and Enfield Chase
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A man by the name of Johnson was said to have been murdered along this road, and the spot where the crime occurred was thought to be haunted for many years after the event. The same road was also said to be haunted by another man, a Mr Danby, who on at least one occasion, caused a horse pulling a carriage with two occupants to bolt. The ghost continued to run alongside the panicked horse until stopping by a gate - it was only then that the horse calmed.

Joanna's Tree

Location: Outer London: Barnet - Tree in Oak Hill Park, East Barnet
Type: Other
Date / Time: Early 1930s
Further Comments: The oak tree under which eighteenth century prophetess Joanna Southcott once sat and received a vision that she was mentioned in the Book of Revelation burst into flame on a clear summer's day.

The Ghosts' Promenade

Location: Outer London: Barnet - Church Hill Road, East Barnet
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1930s
Further Comments: So many phantom encounters along this road led a Justice of the Peace to name it 'The Ghosts' Promenade'. The ghosts were said to include headless humans and dogs, and phantoms in the trees.

Capybara

Location: Outer London: Barnet - Darlands Lake
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: 20 September 2009
Further Comments: Normally found in South America, a capybara was spotted by actor David Dayan Fisher and his nephew and niece while walking through this area.

Distressed Girl

Location: Outer London: Barnet - Field just south of A1081 junction with Trotters Bottom
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960s/1970s
Further Comments: Over a period of around twenty years, calls would arrive at Barnet Police Station from witnesses who claimed to have seen a scantily dressed girl in distress standing in a field. The reports would be made early in the morning, and the police were never able to find anyone when they attended the scene, leading them to believe the girl to be a ghost.

An old illustration of Dick Turpin on horseback.

Turpin

Location: Outer London: Barnet - Finchley Common (no longer exists, now suburbs)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The common was said to be one of the homes to the ghostly form of Dick Turpin.

Grey Lady

Location: Outer London: Barnet - Grange, East Barnet
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Up until at least the early twentieth century, locals believed the area to be haunted by a grey lady.

Sir Geoffrey de Mandeville

Location: Outer London: Barnet - Oak Hill Park, East Barnet
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December 2026, 23:30h or 00:00h next due, then every sixth year (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Sir Geoffrey, complete with red cloak and jangling spurs, appears here on horseback and heads towards the church to disappear through its wall. Even though the ghost is said to appear on Christmas Eve, the last verified sighting of Sir Geoffrey was on 17 December 1932.

Cricket Pavilion

Location: Outer London: Barnet - Oak Hill Park, East Barnet
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: An evening in winter, 1986/87
Further Comments: Walking his dog through the park, this witness spotted what looked like a cricket pavilion with a veranda about 100 yards from him. The building was quite brightly lit, illuminated from the outside. The witness was a little surprised never to have seen the building before, but being new to the area, was not perturbed. Walking back the same way a little later, the building had gone. Neighbours told him that they could not recall a pavilion ever being on the site.

Geoffrey De Mandeville

Location: Outer London: Barnet - Pymms Brook, bottom of Northfield Road and Castlewood Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1992 / 1993
Further Comments: A child ran home after encountering a ghostly figure wearing a red habit with a hood covering the head. Many years later, the child believed the figure to be Sir Geoffrey De Mandeville.

Maidservant

Location: Outer London: Barnet - Red Lion Public House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This woman died after falling down the stairs - her shade remains earthbound.

Airmen

Location: Outer London: Bexley - A2 London-bound between Heath turn-off and Black Prince turn-off
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s, and 2008
Further Comments: Several witnesses were said to have seen a couple of airmen standing on the hard shoulder of the A2. One wore a leather flying helmet while the other appeared to have a medal or piece of metal near his throat. A local tale says that a Heinkel bomber crashed nearby, killing the crew who could not bail out in time, and it has been speculated that the figures belong to this aircraft.

Beast of Bexley

Location: Outer London: Bexley - Bexleyheath Golf Club
Type: ABC
Date / Time: 22:30h on 12 July 2005, and February 2006
Further Comments: A teenager reported seeing a giant black cat trotting across the grass here - police were called but could find nothing. The creature was photographed by a woman from the bottom of her garden in Feb 2006.

Bright Woman

Location: Outer London: Bexley - Foots Cray Meadows
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This bright white female form is reported to walk the meadows scattering flowers for her husband who died during wartime. She is said to have killed herself soon after hearing the news in the same area.

The Black Prince in France.

Lady Constance

Location: Outer London: Bexley - Hall Place
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Constance unknown, Edward in October 1931, poltergeist 1950
Further Comments: One of several ghosts reported here, Lady Constance killed herself after watching her husband die when a stag gored him. Her pale white shade now frequents the grounds. Lady Limerick reported seeing the ghostly Edward, the Black Prince during the First World War, and he popped up again in 1931. The spirit of a servant haunts the loft, while a poltergeist outbreak in 1950 resulted in furniture being tossed around.

Headless Monk

Location: Outer London: Bexley - Lesnes Abbey, Erith
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 31 October (reoccurring), last seen 1981?
Further Comments: The monk was caught with a woman and killed for his crime. The entity now returns once a year. He may have last been seen in 1981 by a teenager who would search the woods near the abbey for old pots and pipes. After returning home one night from the woods, the teenager reportedly spotted a monk in a brown robe holding a lantern on a hooked pole outside his window. The abbey is also home to phantom horsemen, and Roesia of Dover who is looking for her heart (it was buried here by her father).