Haunted London Underground

by David Brandon

  ALDWYCH

  Of all the London Underground stations, Aldwych can claim some fame with regard to hauntings. It is a disused station and therefore could itself be described as a ghost station; it has had a number of ghost sightings and it has also become the location for television and film productions (see the section on Film and Television) as well as a museum piece. Films shot at Aldwych Underground Station include: Death Line (1972); Ghost Story (1973); The Krays (1990); Patriot Games (1992); the horror film Creep (2004); V for Vendetta (2006); and Atonement (2007). The station is even included in the video game Tomb Raider 3. In 2002 it had a whole programme, Most Haunted, dedicated to investigating the ghosts allegedly found there.

  Aldwych was formerly on the Piccadilly Line and was the terminus of a short branch from Holborn until it was closed in September 1994. Situated on the Strand and surrounded by the buildings of King’s College, London University, it was opened as the Strand Station in November 1907 running a shuttle service to Holborn, with a single late-night service running through to Finsbury Park for the use of theatre-goers. The station was built on the site of the Royal Strand Theatre, and this is relevant to the station’s hauntings as one of the ghosts associated with the theatre has been seen lurking around the station platform. The station changed its name to Aldwych in 1917.

  During the war the branch was closed with the operational platform being used as a public air-raid shelter, and the disused platform and running tunnel used to house some of the valuable artefacts from the British Museum including the Elgin Marbles. In the 1970s when the Fleet Line was being planned (later the Jubilee Line) it was intended that it would run from Charing Cross via Aldwych to Ludgate Circus and on to east London. Although the plan did not come to fruition, a few hundred yards of experimental tunnel was dug from Charing Cross to Aldwych. This still exists but was of course never used. Despite being out of use for a number of years, Aldwych Station has a well-preserved interior. It has two entrances – one on the Strand and another around the corner on Surrey Street. The exterior was designed by Leslie Green (1875-1908), the English architect known for his iconic glazed-terracotta facades on a number of London Underground stations during the first decade of the twentieth century.

  Between the end of the nineteenth century and 1914 a major redevelopment took place in the Strand district. Slums that had occupied the area between Drury Lane and Lincoln’s Inn Fields were demolished, several streets were destroyed and the two new thoroughfares of Kingsway and Aldwych were built in their place. The rebuilding wiped out a slice of Victorian theatre history, including the Royal Strand Theatre which was bought out by the railway company and made way for Aldwych Station. The theatre, which was decorated in white, gold and silver, was described by Punch magazine in 1841 as ‘this elegant little theatre’. It changed is name to Punch’s Playhouse in 1850 but reverted to being called the Royal Strand Theatre in 1858. In 1882 the theatre closed for extensive reconstruction mainly to improve access to and from the auditorium. The most successful show to be staged there was the record-breaking musical comedy, The Chinese Honeymoon, which opened in October 1901 and ran for 1,075 performances until 1904. The theatre closed on 13 May 1905 to make way for the construction of the station, with the last performance, a musical, running for a few performances only from 5 May.

  Aldwych Station, Strand entrance. The station is the main Underground location for films and television programmes.

  One rumour suggests that the ghost of an actress who believes she has not enjoyed her last curtain call walks the station. Workers on the Underground have reported a number of sightings. ‘Fluffers’ were people who used to clean the accumulation of dust from the tunnels of the Underground network, particularly the human hair and skin cells that were shed by the 3 million daily passengers. Since the 1970s they have been replaced by the five-car Tunnel Cleaning Train which clears the debris. At Aldwych many ‘fluffers’ reported being scared by a figure who appeared on the tracks at night. When it was mooted that the theatre was to close a number of actresses were very angry and protested. There certainly would be a number of contenders for the ghost of an actress. The last performance there, a musical by Howard Talbot called Miss Wingrove, might well have had aggrieved any one of the female cast who found the play closing down after a week. An interesting history of the theatre and the building of the station is offered by Paul Hadley, ‘From Stage to Platform: The Metamorphosis of the Strand Theatre 1830-1905’, in London Passenger Transport 1984 No. 12 April, pp 588-593.

  In over seventy years many actresses, both well known and lesser known, performed at the theatre. Notable names included Mary Anne Keeley (1806-1899), Louisa Cranstoun Nisbett (1812-1858), Mrs Stirling – Lady Fanny Gregory (1817-1895), Marie Wilton – later Lady Bancroft (1839-1921), Ethel Irving (1869-1963), Priscilla Horton (1818-1895), Violet Vanburgh (1856-1942), Ada Swanborough (1845-1893 – the manager’s daughter who for some strange reason was brought up as a boy until the age of sixteen), and Frances Raymond who committed suicide in the US by inhaling gas in 1901. The New York Times described Frances Raymond as ‘demented’.

  Aldwych Station, Surrey Street entrance.

  Can any further light be cast on whom the ghost might be? When the television series Most Haunted chose to investigate Aldwych Station in 2002 for any ghostly activity they came a little closer to experiencing the presence of the actress but no closer to saying which one. Armed with a fifteen-strong camera crew, medium Derek Achorah and ex-Blue Peter presenter Yvette Fielding spent a day walking the tunnels in complete darkness as well as attempting to pick up signs of supernatural activity from the platform.

  Acknowledging that there had been many sightings of a young actress, the team proceeded to enter the tunnels. A site manager said that it was natural to be very nervous working in the empty stations as strange noises from trains, the wind and inexplicable factors heightened the tensions. He also admitted that Aldwych did have a particular level of paranormal activity. The eastern tunnel, which closed within ten years of the station opening, is the one that has created eerie feelings and sightings. Achorah said he felt the presence of two females and one male although there appeared to be some confusion with one of the females and the man. The female, whose suggested name was Alice Humphrey, was described as touching the head of a man before he was electrocuted on the line – the same story as Aldgate. This was then qualified by saying that the man had also worked at Aldwych as well as Aldgate – but back to our actress. The name Margaret was mentioned with a possible middle name or other name of Estelle and a surname sounding like Bryce or Bright.

  The scary approach to the haunted platform on Aldwych Station. (© Hywell Williams, whose excellent website is http://underground-history.co.uk/front.php.)

  During the filming noises were detected, shadows in tunnels were sighted and strange orb-like lights – which usually signal the arrival of a manifestation – came out on the photography. Parapsychologist Jason Karl confessed to feeling more disturbed at Aldwych Station’s platform and tunnels than anywhere else he had ever been and had no desire to go back.

  Despite this investigation the identity of the actress is still not known and can only be speculated at. Harriet Waylett (1798-1851) was the sole owner of the theatre in 1834. Errol Sherson, in London’s Lost Nineteenth Century Theatres (1925), said that although Waylett was a singer of some repute she was also a drunkard who had a very bad temper. Frances ‘Fanny’ Kelly (1790-1882) opened at the Strand in February 1833 in which she was advertised as playing twenty different characters. We might consider that some descriptions of the Aldwych ghost said she appeared in many guises! Although Fanny Kelly was successful elsewhere, Sherson states that she failed at the Strand. Ada Cavendish (1839-1895) left instructions for her jugular vein to be severed before burial – not an uncommon request amongst people who feared premature burial. No actress seems to appear with the name Margaret or the surname Bryce or Bright. Possibly the ghost was a lesser-known figure who never quite made a
career on stage but who looks desperately for applause or that elusive last curtain call.

  BANK

  Beneath the streets of the City there is a vast underground tunnel that links Bank Station and Monument Station, running the length of King William Street. Whilst the stations are officially known as the Bank-Monument complex they retain separate identities, platforms and entrances. Many commuters familiar with Bank Station will know that there is a longish walk involved between the stations. Bank-Monument is one of the largest and most complex subterranean railway stations in the world. The station, which is named after the nearby Bank of England on Threadneedle Street, was opened in 1900 for the Central London Railway, whilst Monument Station had been completed for the (Inner) Circle Line in 1884 about 100yds away. Faced with the expense of building in a prime property area of London, the City and South London Railway (later part of the Northern Line) tried to save on costs by cutting beneath St Mary Woolnoth Church to build the lift shafts and station. After much objection the railway company bought the crypt for what is now the Northern Line booking hall so the entrance that once led to the crypt now leads into Bank Underground Station. In 1982 as the station was closing a worker who was walking across the ticket hall heard a banging coming from inside the lift, despite the fact that he just checked it and there was no one else around.

  Bank Station. One of the entrances is located next to the Bank of England.

  As with many examples involved in the construction and extension of the Underground, burial sites have been disturbed. In this case the bones of the dead were moved for reburial at the City of London Cemetery, Ilford, in 1900.

  During the Blitz, Bank Station received a direct hit by a bomb in January 1941 which penetrated the road surface and exploded in an escalator machinery room, killing fifty-six people and injuring sixty-nine. In 1960 Bank Underground Station opened Europe’s first ‘travelator’ – a 300-ft moving walkway. The terminal for the Docklands Light Railway was built beneath the Northern Line platforms in 1991 and it was then that the whole complex became known unofficially as Bank-Monument.

  Although, as yet, there have been no reports of any of the disturbed souls that were moved in 1900 there has been the sighting of a ghost that has become associated with the station as well as the nearby Bank of England. The ghost is reputed to be that of Sarah Whitehead who has gained the nickname of the ‘Bank Nun’ (or in some cases the ‘Black Nun’). Workmen building that part of the Underground first saw her ghostly apparition at Bank Station in the late nineteenth century. On another occasion a worker chased what he thought was an old lady locked in the station during the early hours of the morning. When he thought he had caught her up she disappeared down a corridor with no possible exit. Some years later an employee reported seeing a female figure who suddenly disappeared. This was particularly disturbing as the station was closed and no member of the public should have been there. There have been further reports down to recent times of the ghost of Sarah desperately searching for something or somebody. Why does Sarah wander the area and why is she called the Bank Nun?

  The Bank of England. A little further down Threadneedle Street is the Bank of England Museum where an illustration of Sarah Whitehead, the ‘Bank Nun’, is on display.

  Our story goes back to 1811 when Sarah’s brother was charged with forgery and brought before the Old Bailey to stand trial. Her brother, Philip Whitehead, who is referred to as Paul at the trial on 30 October 1811, was a former employee at the Bank of England. A transcript of the trial can be viewed on the excellent Old Bailey online website (http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/oldbailey/).

  Paul Whithead was indicted on the first account of ‘feloniously forging and counterfeiting … a certain bill of exchange’ for over £87. Five other counts of forgery followed. The law took a very grave view of forgery and it was a crime for which there was no pardon. Six months earlier two employees at the Bank of England, Richard Armitage and C. Thomas, had been executed at Newgate. They too had appeared at the Old Bailey and were found guilty of forgery. At their trial it was said that there was alarm at the ‘many forgeries which for some time had been practised on the Bank of England and the commercial part of the metropolis.’ Given the extent of forgery it was not surprising that there was a great deal of sensitivity to the issue by the time Paul Whitehead took the stand.

  Whitehead had worked as a clerk in the cashier’s office at the Bank of England but had resigned from his job on 2 August 1810. The crimes for which he was charged were against a number of businessmen and not the Bank itself. One of those testifying against Whitehead described him as ‘a respectable man’. Whether his leaving the Bank motivated his move into forgery or whether he had been guilty of the offence whilst at the Bank, we do not know. It has been speculated that he lived a lifestyle that he found difficult to pay for and so resorted to forgery. At his trial Paul left his defence to his counsel and he called upon one witness who gave him a good character reference. It proved to be in vain and, at the age of thirty-six, Paul Whitehead was sentenced to death.

  Whilst the trail and subsequent execution had been going on, his devoted sister, Sarah, had been taken to a house in Fleet Street and protected from all news of her brother. Anxious to find out about his whereabouts she set off to the Bank of England in search of him. She asked a clerk who, presumably not knowing who she was, blurted out that her brother had received the death sentence for the said crimes. Stunned and shocked by this news, Sarah could not come to terms with what she had been told and it clearly affected her mind. Shortly after she took to visiting the Bank on a regular basis dressed in black-crepe veil and long dress still asking for her brother. The staff nicknamed her the Bank Nun after her appearance but her visits became a source of pity as well as a nuisance to the Bank.

  At first the Bank even offered to compensate her for her suffering and loss. Poor Sarah then convinced herself that the Bank was conspiring against her. The bank eventually lost patience with Sarah’s continual visits and six years after the death of her brother they tried to come an agreement with her. The arrangement was that they would pay her a sum of money if she agreed not to visit the Bank, which she accepted. Clearly Sarah was not too grief stricken and confused to accept this. Sarah visited the bank and loitered near the entrance between 1812-1837 attired in heavy mourning dress which contrasted strangely with her painted cheeks. After she died Sarah has been seen dressed in black, even on the platforms of the station, still searching and asking, ‘has anyone seen my brother?’ Sarah was reputedly buried in the old churchyard of St Christopher-le-Stocks, which afterwards became part of the Bank’s gardens.

  The famous London Underground logo showing Bank Station.

  Sarah Whitehead, the ‘Bank Nun’. This image appears by kind permission of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. The original can be seen in the Bank of England Museum.

  If Sarah was buried at St Christopher-le-Stocks then she would have been in the company of another ghost, William Jenkins, who died at the age of thirty-one in March 1798. His tall figure has been sighted on a number of occasions around the area. In August 1933 when excavations were carried out in relation to the rebuilding of the Bank a lead coffin, measuring 7ft 6in, was discovered beneath the old Garden Court which had once been the churchyard of St Christopher-le-Stocks. Jenkins, a former clerk at the Bank, had been 6ft 7½in in height. He feared that his corpse would be stolen by body snatchers and asked permission from the directors of the Bank to bury it in the Bank’s Garden Court. His request was granted and Jenkins was buried very early one morning before business began. In July 1923 an Act of Parliament provided that any human remains removed from the site of the former churchyard of St Christopher’s should be re-interred at Nunhead Cemetery (near Peckham) or any other consecrated burial ground.

  Some accounts suggest that the nickname of the Bank of England, ‘The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street,’ is a reference to Sarah. This is not the case. The Bank of England Museum states that the first menti
on of the nickname appeared in print as the caption Political Ravishment or The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street in danger, to a cartoon published in 1797 by James Gillray. The cartoon depicts William Pitt the Younger, the Prime Minister, ‘pretending to woo the Bank, which is personified by an elderly lady wearing a dress of £1 notes seated on a chest of gold.’

  BECONTREE

  Becontree Station is one of many Underground stations where there has been at least one sighting of a ghost. Frustratingly, sightings at stations in general have been acknowledged but as we have mentioned before there is an understandable reluctance for those who have such experiences to make them public. Becontree Station is located towards the east end of the District Line and was opened in 1932.

  The reported haunting by a station employee in 1992 concerns the sighting of a faceless woman with blonde hair standing on the platform. As with so many sightings this was experienced during the hours when the station was closed and therefore few people were present. The sighting of the apparition was preceded by the sound of knocking on the office doors. Needless to say the employee was scared out of his skin. There has been at least one further sighting of the woman although it is still unclear as to her identity. The Encyclopaedia of Ghosts and Spirits (R. Guiley) explains that sightings of faceless women appear in haunting legends around the world: ‘The ghost is a beautiful woman usually seen first from behind, who terrifies people when they discover she has no face.’