London is an acknowledged ghost capital. Over the centuries-old history of this city, so many good and evil spirits have settled here that they appear literally at every step …
Black nun
In the garden of the famous Bank of England lives a ghost called the Black Nun. The story of this ghost is interesting. In 1811, Philip Whitehead, an employee of the Bank of England, was arrested in London for check forgery. The damage caused to the execution was so great that he was sentenced to death. Sarah Whitehead, his sister, a sweet innocent girl, was so shocked by her brother's wrongdoing and death that she went mad. For 25 years, she came to the bank every day and looked for her missing brother there. When Sarah passed away, she was buried in the old church located on the territory of the bank. And now for more than a hundred and fifty years the ghost of a woman in black clothes has been wandering around the bank and looking for her dead brother …
However, the Black Nun is a rather peaceful ghost and does no harm to anyone, unlike the ghosts that inhabit the house in Berkeley Square.
In this old house there were so many horror stories and murders that ghosts literally swarm within its walls.
For example, the ghost of a boy who died of fear in the children's room … The ghost of a woman who committed suicide trying to escape the harassment of her own uncle, who lived in Berkeley Square …
Or the ghosts of two sailors, who once decided to spend the night in this house and jumped out of the window in horror - at night someone so terrible entered their room that both could not stand their nerves …
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All of these stories created the nightmarish glory of the Berkeley Square home, but many people tickled their nerves by going to sleep there.
A certain Lord Littleton spent the night in one of the rooms, armed with two guns, loaded with buckshot and silver bullets. The next morning, the gray-haired lord said that he shot at a ghost that suddenly appeared in the middle of the night, but even after that it did not disappear … The Baron lost consciousness, and the next morning was found with unloaded guns.
The Baron was lucky to be alive after a night in the haunted house. Most of the thrill-seekers who slept in the house in Berkeley Square were found dead the next day, their eyes widening in horror …
Man in gray
London is a city with a rich theatrical tradition. And every self-respecting old theater has its own ghost. The most famous of these is the ghost that dwells in the Theater Royal on Drurilein. He is called the Man in Gray - over the past three hundred years, actors and directors have encountered him more than once.
His appearance is associated with a secret walled up room once discovered in the theater, in which a human skeleton with a knife sticking out between his ribs lay …
The man in gray is always dressed in breeches, a frock coat and a cocked hat. He appears during the performance, calmly walks through the entire hall along the aisle between the chairs, climbs the stage, and then disappears into the wall.
Sometimes the Man in Gray sits down in one of the spectator's chairs and watches the performance attentively. It is interesting that the actors are not at all afraid of the ghost, but, on the contrary, consider him a talisman, and his appearance is a guarantee that the performance will be successful.
The Haymerket Theater is also home to a ghost mascot. This is the spirit of actor John Buxtone, Queen Victoria's favorite. His ghost watches all the performances, sitting in one of the theater boxes. And the door to his old dressing room often opens and closes on its own.
The Coliseum Theater is home to the ghost of a young soldier who died in the First World War. On the eve of his departure to the front, he came to this theater, and was soon killed. Every anniversary of his death, he again comes to the next performance …
Ghosts of kings
Britain is a monarchical power, and the ghosts of kings and royal entourage are found almost at every turn. A large number of people claimed that they saw the face of the famous King George II through the window above the front door of Kensington Palace. They say that before his death, the king looked out of the window at the weather vane in the hope that the wind would change its direction and become favorable for the ships carrying important dispatches from Germany - Britain's ally in the war with the French. These dispatches George II eagerly desired to read before his death. But on October 25, 1760, he died of a heart attack, without waiting for a change in the wind and important messages. And to this day, as eyewitnesses say, the sad pale face of George II sometimes appears in the window to look at the weather vane.
But the most famous ghosts of Britain live in the equally famous Tower, in which many historical events took place …
One of the most surprising reports of unexplained phenomena occurring in the Tower was made by Edward Swift, who was the keeper of the royal treasures for almost forty years, until he retired in 1852. Swift said that one day, in October 1817, he and his family dined in the living room of the Treasure Chamber. And suddenly a very strange vision appeared before the eyes of the guardian of treasures: over their table for about two minutes a "cylindrical body like a glass test tube", filled with a thick blue-white liquid, hung in the air. Suddenly this "test tube" slowly floated around the table.
Mrs Swift cried out, “Oh my God! It grabbed me! " Then Swift jumped up and swung his chair at a strange object. In an instant, the mysterious "test tube" disappeared. Incredibly, neither Swift's son nor daughter-in-law saw this "test tube"!
According to eyewitnesses, the most striking and terrible vision observed in the Tower is the scene of the execution of the Countess of Salisbury, beheaded by order of King Henry VIII. This vision only appears on the anniversary of the execution. Eyewitnesses testify that the countess is seen very clearly, her mad screams are heard when the executioner's ghost approaches her. After the execution, the terrible vision disappears.
Unsurprisingly, most of the ghosts of the Tower of London reside in the Bloody Tower. Two little princes appear here, King Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York. They were killed by order of Richard, Duke of Gloucestershire, who later became King Richard III. The ghosts of the little princes have been seen many times wandering hand in hand in an eternal search for peace.
The decapitated body of Anne Boleyn, one of several executed wives of King Henry VIII, was observed in various places in the Tower of London. Field Marshal Earl Grenfell, while still a young lieutenant, served in the Tower. Once he reported that he saw the ghost of Anna at the walls of the royal chambers, where she languished on the night before her execution. Grenfell said that her decapitated body appeared in front of him and he passed out. But the authorities did not believe the young lieutenant and assumed that he was drunk. Subsequently, at the tribunal, when other guards confirmed his story, which hardly resembled the truth, Grenfell was acquitted …
This is only a small fraction of London ghosts, for it would take a whole book to describe them …
Anna NIKOLAEVA