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Following on from Steven Davies's article Blood on the Tracks, London Underground itself has been a place of real horror for many people. Over two hundred and fifty miles of track make up the system, and while around four million people use the underground each day, by night less tangible figures emerge...

William Terriss is one of the better known spooks of the underground. An actor, Terriss was stabbed to death outside the Adelphi Theatre in December 1897. His apparition is now said to haunt Covent Garden Station, only appearing late at night during winter months. He should be easy to recognise, standing on a platform wearing a grey suit and brilliant white gloves.

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Liverpool Street Station can also be unnerving. While staff monitoring the CCTV have recently reported observing a man in white overalls, the figure is not visible with the naked eye. The site where the station stands was also once home to the Hospital of the Star of Bethlehem (the source of the expression 'bedlam'), a notorious hospital to the 'incurably insane' whose treatment was ghastly at best. Rebecca Griffiths was one of these unfortunates, and after her death, Rebecca's screams haunted the site for decades. Her phantom also developed the habit of peering through cell windows, terrifying other patients and driving them further over the edge.

Female ghosts are not uncommon in the underground. One witness spotted a woman in her twenties with long brown hair crying at King's Cross, only then to see someone walk straight through her. A long-dead nun is said to haunt London Road Depot, while at Beacontree Station one employee encountered a blonde haired woman who had no face - her features were completely smooth. Along the Bakerloo line, at the Elephant and Castle Station, a young woman is observed entering a carriage, though is never seen to leave. Farringdon is home to Anne Naylor, a teenager murdered in the mid eighteenth century. She is never seen, though her ear-piercing cries have earned her the name of 'the Screaming Spectre'.

Another underground legend concerns Crystal Palace Park. For reasons unknown, a train with several carriages, complete with crew and passengers, are said to be buried beneath the earth. One story says a teenager fell into a concealed tunnel during the 1970s and discovered the locomotive and dozens of skeletal figures wearing decaying Victorian attire. Little can be found about this yarn, although opinion is polarised whether the narrative is urban myth or part of a conspiracy.

Last, but by no means least, let us not forget the mythical London Subterraneans; this group of creatures were once human, but since moving down into the underground in the nineteenth century they mutated, and now live on the rubbish we discard and the occasional lone, drunk commuter who fell asleep on a late train. While this may just be a moral tale, would you take the risk?

Darren Mann

www.paranormaldatabase.com