The Saturday Strangeness

Dave Haste
By Dave Haste Last edited 196 months ago
The Saturday Strangeness
Rail ghost

27. More Terrors Of The Tube!

To continue from our last stop of ghosts pertaining to the London Underground, the spectral girl of Elephant & Castle appears to be a rail relation to the phantom hitchhiker legend, in that several witnesses have described, often whilst sitting in an empty carriage, encountering a young woman who takes a seat but often vanishes between stops. Just like many phantom hitchhiker myths, this particular spook story is vague, but many have heard of her exploits.

Even spookier is the Egyptian phantom said to have once prowled the British Museum station, which closed in 1933. The figure, adorned in head garments and loin cloth, was said to walk a tunnel that allegedly once wound from the station to the Egyptian Room in the museum, although such a passage was allegedly denied by London Underground, especially after two women mysteriously vanished from the Holborn platform that was situated just one stop along from the museum. Bizarrely, during the time of the disappearances, odd yet unspecified marks were found on the walls of the museum station, and eerie moans had often been reported echoing through the cold walls.

London Underground remains one of the capital’s eeriest places, with many a chilled researcher turning down the opportunity to spend a night down there. Are there really lines that go nowhere in particular? And what about the stations built right next to Plague Pits, could such graves be the answer to some of the more sinister ghost sightings? One such pit was allegedly discovered in the late 60s at Green Park with the construction of the Victoria Line, whilst the collapse of a road at Blackheath was also blamed on the disturbance of such a pit.

And what of the phantom attacker said to push members of the public onto the lines? That’s for next week…

By Neil Arnold

Last Updated 17 November 2007