25. More Road-Related Horror!
Lord John Angerstein’s coach has been sighted pulled by four headless horses, in the vicinity of Trafalgar Road, travelling onwards to Vanbrugh Hill in southeast London. Why the horses appear headless no one knows.
On the Bayswater Road near Hyde Park, another phantom coach and horses is said to travel, without sound. But the most astonishing vehicle to haunt Greater London has to be that of a spectral bus, sighted between Cambridge Gardens and St Mark’s Road. The red bus was often sighted during the 1930s, and although more modern reports seem scarce, rumour has it that it has been sighted in the 1990s – despite major alterations to the route it once travelled. When the bus was observed, no witness ever described a driver or passengers, yet it was often commented that the lights on deck were always on. Some locals claimed that several accidents in the area were down to motorists avoiding the spectral vehicle.
Ghosts of those murdered many years ago also haunt various areas of London as road-related entities, the most well-known being Alice Grant, who has been reported wearing Victorian clothing on Bromley Road and Southend Lane in Bellingham, as well as another spooky lady who is said to haunt the Hare & Billet Road, many years after she discovered her lover had cheated on her, resulting in her hanging herself.
At Blackheath, the spirit of another murdered woman is said to roam. She was possibly killed during the late 1700s or early 1800s, as her skull, showing a massive head wound, was discovered in 1830. The figure is often reported as wearing white clothing. Meanwhile, murderous screams have been heard along a stretch of road at Kidbroke Lane in southeast London.
Eerie sounds of ghostly trains are said to spook residents of Highgate, and London Underground is also haunted by several ghosts, but these are stories for another time…
By Neil Arnold
