Construction of the London Underground began in 1860, and three years later, the first line, consisting of seven platforms, was opened. Now the metro of the capital of Britain has two hundred and seventy stations, but about forty of them are completely abandoned. Of course, these "ghost stations" like a magnet attract diggers and adventure lovers, who, in turn, are the creators of myths and horror stories about the mysterious inhabitants of dark underground tunnels and platforms covered with perennial dust …
Victims of the "black death"
The most famous heroes of the first branches of the London Underground are the souls of the dead and deprived of their graves. Where did they come from there? Very simple. The first metro was built in an open way: a deep and wide ditch was dug in the desired direction.
Usually they dug right along the road, but if houses came across on the way, they had to be demolished. The walls of the moat were strengthened, arches were erected on top, flooring was made, then all this was covered with earth, laid with paving stones, and the street took on its original appearance. True, a shallow (up to five meters) but long and rather wide tunnel already passed under it, quite sufficient for a train to pass.
So, there is a legend that in the process of laying the first metro, the builders stumbled upon mass graves several times - hundreds of human bodies were clearly once dumped into huge holes and covered with lime. Of course, the workers were not thrilled with such finds, especially after the authorities, having hesitated, officially announced that the buried were victims of medieval plague epidemics.
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Homeless "underground"
Nobody wanted to bother with the reburial of the "plague" remains, and therefore the owners of the construction had to pay a lot of money just for the bones to be simply removed from the road. Let's try to calculate: the "black death" in 1348-1349 destroyed two-thirds of the population of London and the surrounding villages, which, according to the most conservative estimates, amounted to about 60 thousand people.
Lithograph of a steam locomotive on the line, near Paddington Station; 1863.
In 1666, the plague took over 70,000 more unfortunate people. Now, if we assume that the builders stumbled upon only a small part, say, one percent of the burial grounds, then in any case we have in our asset more than a thousand ghosts, dissatisfied with the deprivation of even common, but still graves. Now these same ghosts have every right to dwell in the underground underground, since their final resting places have been destroyed.
The second, more modest in number, group of ghosts consists of permanent residents of the subway - former homeless people, criminals and other persons with a dubious past, who chose the metro as their home immediately after its first stations opened. There, under the platforms, they lived and did their dirty deeds, they died there, and their phantoms continue to scare passengers, suddenly appearing from a dark corner, demanding wallet or life out of habit and contemptuously refusing credit cards.
Londoners, especially gifted with fantasy, claim that these ghosts feed on spiders and rats, but they are especially eager to feast on tourists who have lost their way in the subway.
Transfer to the station "Strand", which was closed in 1994.
Elite of the world of ghosts
Of course, in addition to the faceless "plague" ghosts and underground gopniks of the century before last, many of the old London Underground stations have their own ghosts with personality, rich history and quite docile nature.
Such ghosts are the pride of the British "underground", metro workers take care of them and regularly take tourists to these stations to show off the phenomenon. For example, the attendants of the platform "Eldwich", opened in 1907 and closed in 1994, will gladly tell you about an actress who once performed at a local theater, which, by the way, was located right at the station, which is interesting in its own way …
This actress, either disappointed in her own talent, or a little crazy about the trains passing by regularly, after another, not very successful, judging by the results, performance, decided to play the role of Anna Karenina and ended up on the rails.
Now her ghost roams the Eldwich station at night, sometimes looking at the neighboring platforms. True, it does not show itself in anything, except for prints of traces in those places where the cleaner's mop rarely looks.
Egyptian guest
And at the British Museum station, closed since 1933, a real ancient Egyptian is insolently walking around. That is, of course, his ghost. What kind of wind carried the guest from the land of the great pyramids to Foggy Albion, and even to the subway - no one knows. But Londoners firmly believe in the Egyptian. Even before the war, a London newspaper offered a reward to those who would not be afraid of a ghost and dare to spend the night at the station.
But there were no daredevils at that time, or the reward seemed inappropriate for the risk. In any case, the newspaper remained "with its own", and soon the war began, and hundreds of people were already spending the night at metro stations, not thinking about any ghosts there.
Since the metro is primarily a railway, it is impossible not to mention ghost trains in our article. Many of those who regularly pass South Kensington Station say that the same train that disappeared in 1982 in the most mysterious way in the tunnel sometimes comes across. The train was without passengers and went to the depot. But, slipping past South Kensington, he seemed to dissolve.
He did not appear at the depot or at other stations. The train and its driver were never seen again.