67. Subterranean Dwellers As a child I was always peeping from the stairs at the latest horror movie my mum and dad had hired. One such shocker was the 1972 Brit-flick 'Deathline', also known as 'Raw Meat', which concerned the horrific rumour that a race of cannibals were existing under the streets of London, and their acts of carnage taken out on all manner of victims such as tramps, drunks, city workers and pets.......

Londonist's walks with One Eye Grey are always excellent, informative, intriguing and - importantly - a laugh but you can't always cover as much ground as you might like. Tonight then, break new ground with Fright Bikes, One Eye Grey's collaboration with Witcombe Cycles and Southwark Cyclists, presenting a frightful set of stories stretching from London Bridge to darkest Deptford and ending up in a jolly pub. Ghostly polar bears, well hung pirates, the......

64. The Beast Beneath. Of all the things I have written about with regards to weird phenomena in London, what you are about to read is possibly one of the strangest and most significant tales ever. This story comes via two good friends and fellow researchers – Jonathan Downes and Nick Redfern. Nick, a Texas-based investigator heard from Jonathan Downes, who runs The Centre For Fortean Zoology, that during the 1940s at the Royal......

62. The Scariest Urban Legend Urban legends are often considered myths, or 'friend of a friend' tales (FOAFtales), which differ from classic mysteries in the sense that they are perceived as exaggerated yarns. London has many such tales from its dark, foggy corners, but there is one such story which has become criminally forgotten, and for me remains one of the capital's most horrifying legends – namely 'The Maniac On The Platform' first discussed......

Festival season embeds itself in our social life this week and makes a mockery of our diary – it’s all illegible scribblings, strike-throughs, and exclamation points. Whilst we attempt to sort ourselves out, let’s see what sense we can make of the week ahead in literary London for you... Monday: Bebop hep-cats (that’s right, hep-cats) converge on the Troubadour tonight to celebrate the 1950s poetry scene (8pm, £6/£5 concessions); biographers Anne Sebba and Andrew......

56. A Fairy Likely Story! What Jacqui Lester saw as a child has remained with her for over thirty years. At the time, in the '70s, she was a child living at Manor Park in the London Borough of Newham. It took place one morning as she stirred from slumber and glanced towards the bottom of the bed. Standing there was a sight she will never forget, a creature... no, a human... around eight-inches......

The fifth edition of our favourite pocket sized publication, One Eye Grey, is here. If you went on the latest Londonist walk you'll be well aware of this as Chris Roberts was your genial guide and probably hawked it merrily in your direction. And more fool you if you didn't take him up on his ridiculously reasonably priced wares. For a mere two hundred and fifty pennies you could be reading stories from 'another......

48. The Phantom Cat Whilst searching through my archives, like a gleeful grave-digger shoveling out the mounds of soil on a moonlit night, I literally stumbled across a text from a pamphlet dated 1674, in reference to a peculiar haunting, if it was indeed a haunting, or maybe one of the first ever encounters with a large 'panther'! I make no apologies for transcribing the original document exactly for weirdness sake! News from Puddle-dock......

44. Cry Wolf! In 2005 I met a guy who told me that, whilst living in the Battersea area, he recalled from childhood around twenty-five years ago several nightmarish tales that would send him cowering under the bed sheets. One of these yarns concerned rumour that wolves were inhabiting the local woods! I have always been fully aware of strange creatures roaming the thickets, but wolves – surely not?! Then I came across an......

42. The Phantom Ape Apologies that last week's installment of the weird and sinister went missing... the author decided to go in search of a phantom ape, but never returned... so, in the style of 'Blair Witch' we bring you his notes for another episode of the bizarre and the obscure. The story revolves around a Mr Ward, a Hampstead man who during the early 1900s went to Sumatra on an expedition through the......

40. London UFOs Part Six The ‘70s began slow for UFO reports over the capital, but then things got very weird! Firstly, at Acton, a witness reported a UFO sighting to Hounslow Police Station. Then, two police officers in the same building spotted presumably the same craft and watched it with binoculars. The craft was circular and bright but showing black spots. A Scotland Yard spokesperson confirmed the sightings. Then, in 1975 near Erith,......

38. London UFOs Part Four Newspapers across the world were being bombarded by UFO reports by the time the ‘50s had glided by. On July 15th 1963 a farmer from Charlton found a crater, measuring 2 ½ metres wide and the same deep on his land. Around the hole were four impressions, as if something had stood or landed there – soil and foliage surrounding the hole were scorched. Weird lights seen over the......

37. London UFOs Part Three The 40s were the start of something huge for ufology after pilot Kenneth Arnold observed nine disc-like craft over Washington in 1947. For London, it was the 22nd of November when a female witness, whilst under hypnosis, spoke of being abducted by two silver suited females and put before a man who burned the figures ‘H6AQ’ onto her leg, which were still visible when she awoke from her trance.......