Ghost Stories of The City Run

Bit late for Halloween, but we are still in Lockdown, so anything goes. Been exploring the city with Andrew more through running during Lockdown V2.0, using some self-guided city walk routes, which has been fun, but has mostly highlighted quite how gruesome the city's history is. Starting with a ghoulish Halloween route.....

First stop, Liverpool Street Station. Doesn't ever look very scary, but ever since the 2015 Cross-Rail excavation uncovered the burial ground of Bedlam Hospital, and found 30 plague victims, there have been reports of a strange male figure waiting for a train, who disappears seconds later. (I can vouch for this. I've been at Liverpool Street before dawn, usually on the way to a marathon, and it is scary, with plenty of strange male figures around the place, but usually quite solid looking).

Then it was to the Bank of England, AKA the Old Lady Of Threadneedle Street. Who knows why it's called that. I don't, so I looked it up. The Bank has been located on Threadneedle Street for almost all of it's 300 years. The nickname dates back to a cartoon published in 1797, depicting the Prime Minister (William Pitt the younger) wooing an old lady (The Bank of England) - or, trying to get at her money. So there you go. There's also another Lady of Threadneedle Street. She is Sarah Whitehead, the devoted sister of Philip, who was a former employee of the Bank. Sounds like he was a bit disillusioned with it all, and got into forgery, and in 1811 was executed for it, which seems a bit extreme, but that's history for you. The truth was kept from his sister, as it would be too upsetting, but she found out when one day she visited the bank asking for her brother, and the clerk on duty told her what happened. The shock was too much, and she thereafter came every day to the Bank asking to see her brother. When she passed away, she was buried in a churchyard which is now the Bank's garden, and her ghost has been seen many times, sadly wandering along Threadneedle Street.

On to St Pauls, which has a good haul of ghost stories. For a good shiver inducing one, I like this one. Visitors have reported seeing a lady kneeling on the floor searching for something. When they approach to ask if she needs help, they feel a tap on the shoulder. When they turn around, there's no one there, and when they turn back, the lady has vanished. 

Fortunately, all I saw on the floor was a squirrel.

Then it was on to Hen and Chicken Court on Fleet Street, to finish off with the delightful story of Sweeny Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street. He who murdered his clients in his barber's chair (this was way back in the days when people could visit hairdressers freely), before making them into meat pies with the help of his lover, Mrs Lovett, and selling them. I think it's a bit sketchy as to if he was real or not (it's pretty horrific, so probably he was, yes) and if he was, his shop might have been near here, so this isn't altogether conclusive as to being the site of the gruesome deed. 

Anyway, I hope that's been nice and uplifting. Next up is the Charles Dickens run, which is by no means any more cheerful, so that's something to look forward to.