The Black Beacon Book of Ghosts will send shivers up your spine this Halloween. The Kindle version is already available for pre-order at just $1.99 instead of $3.99 and you can add the anthology to your Goodreads "want to read" list today. The anthology will be officially released on the 11th of October 2024. To get you in the mood and give you a little insight into the workings of their minds, our contributing authors are sharing their own haunting experiences with you. Read on, if you're not fainthearted!
Ghost of the Necropolis by David Turnbull
On Waterloo's Westminster Bridge Road there stands an old Edwardian Office block, not far from Lambeth North tube station. If you fancy owning a piece of gothic history with a ghost story attached it is currently up for sale. The abandoned building is the last remaining remnant of what was once the Necropolis Railway.
The Necropolis Railway was opened in 1854 as a solution to overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in London's seven major public cemeteries, themselves built to tackle overcrowding in London churchyards following the population boom brought about in the city by the industrial revolution.
Coffins, corpses, and mourners would be transported from Waterloo to Brookwood, 18 miles away in Surrey, where 2,200 acres of land had been purchased for a gigantic cemetery. In true Victorian fashion you could make your journey to you final resting place in first, second, or third class, depending on your social standing.
One of the most notorious people transported from Waterloo and buried at Brookwood was Doctor Robert Knox who died in 1862. Knox had gained infamy as the surgeon who received murdered corpses from the Edinburgh grave robbers, Burke and Hare. As a result of the scandal following their trial, he'd been forced to relocate to London. His plot in Brookwood is one of the few that was concreted over. Clearly, given his experience of grave robbers, he wasn't taking any chances.
The office block was part of the Necropolis which was relocated in 1902 when South West Railways extended Waterloo station. Coffins continued to be transported to Brookwood up until World War Two, when bombing during the blitz left the station damaged beyond repair.
The building's ghost story has its origins a decade before the war started, when the railway was still fully operational. On the night of 14th March 1929 Police Constable David Ford entered the premises during a suspected burglary. Whilst carrying out his investigation he fell to his death through a skylight. Years later, when the offices were being utilised as a training centre for Transport for London, staff working late regularly reported hearing frantic footsteps running along corridors and up and down stairways, accompanied by the repeated banging of doors. It was believed to be the ghost of PC Ford eternally chasing his elusive burglar. Who knows, the new owners of the building may well find that this ghostly nocturnal chase is still going on.
No comments:
Post a Comment