The Paranormal Database

Short Hairy Creature

Location: Outer London: Redbridge - Love Lane area, Woodford Bridge
Type: Cryptozoology
Date / Time: November 2008
Further Comments: A local paper reported that Irene Dainty encountered a four-foot tall hairy creature with large feet and animal-like eyes close to her home. The creature ran off and jumped over the wall of the nearby Three Jolly Wheelers public house.

Picture Puller

Location: Outer London: Redbridge - Perryman's Farm, Ilford
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: This spirit got his kicks by pulling any hanging pictures from the wall. The elderly woman who resided at the site would leave food and drink out in the evening to try to pacify the entity.

Silhouette

Location: Outer London: Redbridge - Snaresbrook, road opposite The Eagle public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late January 2010, 22:15h
Further Comments: While driving home, a man was distracted by his mobile phone ringing. At that moment he spotted the silhouette of a person in front of his car. Slamming on the brakes, the man was convinced he had hit someone, before realising there was no body, no damage to the car, and he had felt no actual impact. He also then realised his phone did not have the ringtone he had heard, and on checking, his mobile had no missed calls.

An old woodcut of a skeleton carrying a fiddle, grabbing a woman.

Seeking Skeleton

Location: Outer London: Redbridge - St Mary's Church and graveyard, Overton Drive
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This skeletal ghost has been seen pushing a cart designed for corpses, looking for the body of his dead wife that was stolen by grave robbers. The grey female form seen around the graveyard is a poor widow who lost her husband only hours after they were married - she still searches for him today.

1920s Women

Location: Outer London: Redbridge - Valentines park - Perth Road Entrance gates, Ilford
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: July 1986, evening
Further Comments: A couple of witnesses watched a pair of ladies dressed in 1920s garb moving through the park.

Cloaked Figure

Location: Outer London: Redbridge - Wanstead Golf Club
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1977, morning
Further Comments: A cloaked figure was observed crossing the golf course close to the lake, heading in the direction of St Mary's Church. The figure disappeared shortly after being seen.

Catherine Tylney Long

Location: Outer London: Redbridge - Wanstead Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Long died of complications from a stomach ailment following her husband's bankruptcy (although many myths incorrectly state she committed suicide after she lost her fortune to a series of bad judgements of an immoral lover). Her ghost lives on in the park. Elizabeth I's spectre is also rumoured to pass across the grounds in a coach, en route to meet the Earl of Leicester.

Smoker

Location: Outer London: Redbridge - Wansted Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Along one corridor, where a murder was committed many years ago, a spot exists which is said to cause people to run after dark, such is the fear it generates. The murder is said to have occurred over tobacco and a pipe.

Bell Ringing

Location: Outer London: Redbridge - Woodford Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Midnight marks the start of the ghostly bell ringer's duties in the area, though the building in which he worked has not stood for many years.

Kate Webster

Location: Outer London: Richmond upon Thames - Barnes Railway Bridge (replaced in 1895)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1879
Further Comments: The ghost of murderer Kate Webster was said to appear on this bridge and could be seen dropping the remains of her victim, Julia Martha Thomas, into the river below. The main problem with this ghost story is that Webster threw pieces of her victim into the river from Richmond Bridge...

Whisky Slice

Location: Outer London: Richmond upon Thames - Clarence Hotel
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 1979
Further Comments: The hotel manager blamed a poltergeist for throwing books off a shelf, removing cylinders from walls, and slicing a bottle of whisky down the middle. A misty figure had also been spotted, and a phantom cat observed in the cellar.

Figure with Tail

Location: Outer London: Richmond upon Thames - General area, including near the theatre and close to the river side
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 1801
Further Comments: A two-guinea reward was offered to anyone who could catch the ghost which started haunting the area. One description said the entity was a completely black human-like figure with a tail; another claimed that it appeared white with a black head and hands. A girl who encountered the entity near the theatre became bedridden, while two women had to carry a man to the town after a sighting near the river made him feel faint.

Scratching Old Lady

Location: Outer London: Richmond upon Thames - Ham House, Twickenham
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.

Knight

Location: Outer London: Richmond upon Thames - Kingston Hill area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom knight upon a white horse was once thought to haunt this area.

A pale figure seen at night...

Blame the Parrot

Location: Outer London: Richmond upon Thames - Old Cobwebs public house (currently The Duke)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Circa 1904
Further Comments: A blue light and a pale figure were spotted by women staying in this building, and knocking heard which could not be traced to a source. The landlord denied his pub was haunted, claiming that he was mistaken as the ghostly figure while walking around at night holding a candle, and that the sounds were caused by rats, owls, and a neighbouring parrot.

Lady in Grey

Location: Outer London: Richmond upon Thames - Penn Place, Hampton
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This female shade is said to make itself apparent to children and young people.

Queen Elizabeth

Location: Outer London: Richmond upon Thames - Richmond Palace
Type: Manifestation of the Living
Date / Time: 1603
Further Comments: As she lay dying elsewhere, Elizabeth was observed standing at a window of the palace. A few reports say she still haunts the building. The palace may have been the location where Edward Seymour, Lord Protector of England, and Anne Seymour witnessed a 'hand with a bloodied sword' emerge from a wall. Edward was beheaded a short time later. There are also more recent reports of phantom horses' hooves heard clopping around the courtyard.

Ball of Glowing Light

Location: Outer London: Richmond upon Thames - Richmond Park
Type: Other
Date / Time: 16 February 2003
Further Comments: Two men out for a walk watched a glowing ball of energy ooze over a park wall before bouncing into the park and brushing against a tree. The ball then took off again, moving down the park road before dissipating. When the light faded away, both saw a small figure standing where the ball had been - it looked like a young male child, but with a large head. The entity then vanished in a flash of light.

Pillar of Mist

Location: Outer London: Richmond upon Thames - Roebuck public house, Richmond Hill
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1972
Further Comments: A guest at the pub reported waking early in the morning to see a pillar of mist floating in the middle of his room - it moved towards the window before vanishing. Earlier the same day, a strange man was seen walking up the staircase, but no sign of him could be found when investigated further.

Alexander Pope (detail), by Godfrey Kneller.

Alexander Pope

Location: Outer London: Richmond upon Thames - St Mary's Church, Twickenham
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.

Studio Spooks

Location: Outer London: Richmond upon Thames - Teddington Studios
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 2000s
Further Comments: Auction World TV reported that many strange things were happening soon after the show moved in, including lighting rigs that fell from the sky without warning and doors that locked themselves. A former worker also heard voices that passed his door - on investigation he could find no one around.

Cavalier

Location: Outer London: Richmond upon Thames - Thames, between Richmond and Twickenham
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: Said to initially rise out of the river, this phantom Cavalier would start moving along local roads in the late afternoon or early evening, before vanishing without trace.

Evil Monkey

Location: Outer London: Richmond upon Thames - 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.

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.