London Underground Ghosts-Covent Garden Station
People claim to have seen ghosts haunting Covent Garden station since the 1950s. The station areas, especially the platforms, are said to be haunted by the ghost of an actor, who used to visit the bakery which stood in the station's place before it was built.
It is thought that the ghost is of the actor William Terris, who was fatally stabbed on The Strand in December 1897. This could perhaps explain why staff on The Underground have reported seeing a tall man in a frock coat, hat and gloves pacing the tunnels as far back as the 1950s. Patrolling the platforms was one thing but when he appeared in the staff rest room, many workers demanded a transfer.
A London Underground foreman reported numerous ghostly sightings of the actor at Covent Garden station in 1955:
During a cold November night in 1955, the last train had long gone and Jack Hayden, the foreman of Covent Garden station, was locking the gates. He made a final check of the platforms. All was quiet. Nodding to himself, he turned to leave and suddenly saw a tall, distinguished looking man walking towards the emergency stairs. Jack quickly telephoned the ticket office. "There's someone still down here, Henry - he's coming up the stairs," he said. "Let him out, would you? I'll meet you up there."
Jack jumped into the lift and arrived at the booking hall, where a puzzled clerk was still waiting at the top of the stairwell. Together they went down the stairs and then searched the platforms and the tunnels. There was no-one there.
Four days later, Jack was in the mess-room, again after the last train, and saw a tall man staring at him through the open door. "He was wearing an old-fashioned grey suit," Jack said later, "with a funny looking old-style collar and some light-coloured gloves."
"Looking for the cloakroom, sir?" ventured Jack. The figure said nothing, but moved away from view. Jack moved to follow him - but there was no-one around.
Afraid of ridicule, Jack didn't mention what he'd seen. But a few days later, at midday, he was sitting with one of the guards when they heard a mighty scream. Moments later, a 19-year-old porter called Victor Locker staggered into the mess room gasping that he had seen a tall, strange-looking man in the other room. When Victor had approached him, he'd felt a heavy sensation around his head and the figure had vanished.
This time Jack knew he had to make a report. The nearest control point was Leicester Square Station. The managers sent the foreman, Eric Davey - who, by coincidence, was also an amateur spiritualist. They tried to recreate the scene with Victor, who suddenly screamed again. Eric felt something pressing down heavily on his head for a few seconds before vanishing. A few days later, Eric saw the ghost for himself, and he thought it had said that its name was Terry.
Jack and Eric described the figure they'd seen to an artist, who made a sketch. The Psychic News then dug out a number of Victorian photographs of people connected to the area. Both Jack and Eric pounced on the picture at the top of the pile - a man with an expressive face, sad eyes and sunken cheeks. "That's him! That's him! That's the man I saw in here!" cried Jack. The photograph was of a man named William Terris, and was remarkably similar to the man in the sketch.
Unknown to the station staff, people at the Adelphi Theatre had seen a similar apparition a few years before Jack's experience. They had nicknamed their visitor 'Charlie'. Jack saw the ghostly figure several times over the next few years, always around November or December. In the end, it became too much for him and he requested a transfer. But since that day, several staff members at Covent Garden have reported hearing strange noises and footsteps when no-one was there.
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