Ghosts of the London Underground

the underground has been at the center of london's transport infrastructure for almost a century and a half during that time it has played host to many historical events from sheltering civilians in the second world war to being a target of the 2005 london terrorist attacks many people have lost their lives in these tunnels could their souls remain as ghosts of the london underground but first don't forget to pick up an amazing deal from this episode's sponsor surf shark you can't do better than surf shark in terms of bang for your buck you get all the

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street station in central london he now busied himself in the ticket office cashing up the tills and carrying out any number of other mundane administrative tasks steve much preferred the relative peace and quiet of the night shifts compared to the hustle and bustle of the daytime even if they did seem to pass by more slowly there was a strange sense of priviness in having such a large public space all to himself a tranquility he otherwise rarely got to experience on the desk in front of him the phone began to ring shattering the silence picking up

the receiver the familiar voice of the line controller who was stationed off-site told steve that he was looking at the cctv feed from the eastbound platform of liverpool street and that he could see a man down there standing near to the tunnel entrance the station's supervisor checked his watch it was just after 2am the gates to the station had been closed and padlocked almost three hours beforehand so there shouldn't have been anyone besides him inside the station itself he told the line controller that he would go down and check and then hung up taking the

escalator down to the platform in question steve did a thorough sweep of the area as he reached the eastbound tunnel entrance he took out his torch and shone it along the tracks receding into the pitch dark of the subway he also checked the line immediately below the platform as he made his way back but there was no one there the platform itself was completely empty at the bottom of the escalators there was a public phone which steve used to call the line controller back and tell him that he had carried out a thorough search and

that the platform was secure but the line controller's response didn't make any sense i can see you on the monitor right now i can see the tunnel entrance he's standing right there he's wearing white overalls confused steve agreed to take another look leaving the phone hanging with the controller on the other end of the line he went off and performed another search but still the platform was completely empty there's no one else here he said to his colleague when he got back to the phone but the line controller was having none of it how did

you not see him he was standing right next to you he's wearing white overalls you shine your torch right at him for several seconds there's no way you couldn't have seen him either you're winding me up or there is a glitch on your screen steve replied i've done two sweeps now and i'm telling you there is no one else here with that he put the phone down and turned to go back up the escalators when something made him stop in his tracks on the bench opposite he saw a set of white overalls draped over the

seat and armrest which were definitely not there before a sudden chill went up his spine as he quickened his pace and made his way back up to the ticket office he wasn't to know it at the time but he had just had a run-in with the famous liverpool street ghost opened in 1890 the london underground is the oldest subway system in the world each year 1.3 billion people pass through its 270 stations which are collectively manned by nearly 6 000 members of staff most of the passengers who take the subway do so without a second

thought completely oblivious to the history which surrounds them the ground in which this system is built has been settled upon for millennia from the underground's initial inception right up to the present day there have been thousands of accidental deaths suicides and tragic events not to mention the amount of graveyards cemeteries plague pits and church crips which have been disrupted or relocated during its construction add all of these things together and the number of potentially disturbed souls begins to soar for the average commuter the day-to-day experience of riding the tube is one of overcrowded chaos especially

in the headache-inducing rush hour but if they were able to visit any one of the many stations during the midnight hours long after closing they would discover an entirely different world one which is mostly peaceful but can also be unnerving haunting and downright eerie what follows is just some of the stories told by those who work on the london underground in the summer of 1992 the supervisor of beacon tree station tarik rana was working a late shift after closing down for the night he was just finishing off some final paperwork and then planned to head

home on the right side of the office in which he was sitting there was a door which led up to the overground district line platform in the relative silence this door began to rattle but tariq thought nothing of it rattling doors were a frequent occurrence due to the updrafts and downdrafts created by passing trains he simply assumed that a train was approaching on the district line a few minutes later when the door rattled the second time he was sure he would soon hear the rumble of carriages passing above and to the right of him but

that sound never materialized confused he made his way through the door and up onto the district line platform to see what was going on but looking up and down the tracks he could see that no trains were approaching from either the left or right even though he could feel no breeze on the night air he reasoned that the rattling must have been caused by the wind and headed back down to the office to finish up but no sooner had he closed the door behind him when it rattled a third time now however it was much

more sustained [Music] unnerved by this bizarre occurrence he decided to head up to the station foyer where another member of staff was working as he stepped out onto the disused subway platform and began to make his way up the steps he suddenly experienced an intense feeling that someone was standing behind him turning his head he saw the terrifying image of a woman a few steps further down from where he was she had long blonde hair but no face it was completely blank where her features should have been [Music] utterly shaken tariq turned and ran up

to the station foyer taking three steps at a time when they met his colleague remarked how he looked as if he had seen a ghost and when tariq replied saying i think i just have his co-workers response was did you see the blonde woman with no face apparently in 1958 there was a train collision at the station on the district line which killed 10 people and tarik was not the only person to have seen the blonde lady of beacon tree 12 miles west of beacon tree you will find the station at hyde park corner one

of the most central stops on the network back in november of 1978 barry oakley was working the night shift long after the last train had left he and a colleague had shut the escalators down by removing the corresponding circuit breakers in the control room they had then returned to the supervisor's office to continue their administrative tasks at around 2 30 in the morning they heard an almighty commotion outside which sounded like grinding gears mixed with a rhythmic knocking running out to the foyer they were surprised to see that one of the escalators they had previously

shut down was now running again but making a hell of a racket in the process this came as a complete shock to the two men because as far as they were aware once the circuit breakers had been removed it was impossible for the escalators to run as there was no power going to them not only that but it would require a special key to start back up again after a brief investigation in which they found that the circuit breaker was still removed they managed to shut the escalator down once more and then returned to the

office barry would later say that during this whole time he had a strong sense that someone else was there in the station with them besides himself and his colleague after settling back into his paperwork he happened to glance across to his co-worker and saw that he was now standing with his back flat against the office wall pale faced and clearly in some sort of trance barry's initial thought was that the man was having a seizure as he was completely unresponsive after several minutes he came back to his senses and with the haunted look he said

did you see the face apparently as the two of them had been sitting there working away a hideous face had appeared at the office window and stared at both of them his colleague went home shortly afterwards and never returned to that particular station perhaps one of the most unenviable jobs on the london underground is known as track walking track walkers are required to patrol the tunnels at night long after the trains have stopped usually moving from one station to another they do this alone and completely in the dark with only a battery-powered torch to light

their way during the early 2000s bill mccown was a veteran track walker having been in the job for more than 20 years on one particular occasion he was walking the jubilee line between the stations of finchley and charring cross a distance of about eight miles he decided to take a quick break on a stretch of track which ran between baker street and sent john's wood he had been sitting down for about two minutes when he heard a strange sound off to his right shining his torch in that direction he couldn't see anything but then he

suddenly noticed that the ballast between the tracks was moving as the commotion moved closer to him he could hear footsteps walking past and in the torchlight he could see the ballast sinking down with each step dumbfounded by what he was witnessing bill later reported that he felt a tingling sensation like static all through his body as it drew level with him it carried on past him for about 10 meters and then stopped sitting in complete silence once more bill now contemplated that he had to carry on walking in that same direction in order to finish

his patrol which he did with no small amount of trepidation upon reaching charring cross station his supervisor remarked on how pale he looked and when bill responded saying you're not going to believe what's just happened his supervisor quickly cut him off and said don't tell me you've seen footprints in the ballast bill was not the first person to have witnessed the phenomenon and he wouldn't be the last records show that a track walker suffered a fatal heart attack whilst patrolling that same stretch of the jubilee line many years before kennington is allegedly one of the

most haunted stations on the network with more unexplained phenomena being reported there than anywhere else thanks to a section of track known as kennington loop the loop exists to allow southbound trains to turn around and head north again passengers are cleared out at kennington station before the empty trains are sent into the loop where they will often have to wait for up to 20 minutes in the 150 year old tunnels and whilst they are waiting there is no way anyone can get on or off the train bob ken and larry de larabeti both worked on

the northern line bob was a driver and larry was a guard larry describes how many years ago he was working on a train that had been sent into the loop there had been an incident further up the line which meant that he and his driver were stuck there for about 10 minutes sitting in the rear most carriage he heard the unmistakable sound further up the train of the interconnecting doors between each car opening it was getting closer and closer until finally the doors to his carriage opened and he turned expecting to see his driver but

there was nobody there similarly bob also heard the sound of the doors opening at the front end of the train and he turned expecting to see his colleague but was greeted by dead air the twist in this tale is that bob and larry were on different trains their experiences took place four years apart from each other and the two men have never met the story goes that a passenger had been killed at kennington 50 years beforehand whilst trying to board the train between carriages his body was dragged into the loop it seems the london underground

is utterly steeped in stories of the unexplained almost every station appears to exhibit some form of strange phenomena or has its own resident ghost sometimes several there is so much more to tell from the accounts regarding the nun of bank monument station to the phantom maintenance man of south island place from the crying children of bethnal green to the demonic presence which stalks a disused tunnel at embankment not to mention the strange activity often witnessed at the 15 abandoned stations still attached to the network this is most definitely a subject we would like to revisit

in the near future but in the meantime is there any explanation for what people are experiencing unfortunately very little exists in the way of proof over the years some interesting images have been captured but like so many pictures of so-called ghosts they are inconclusive what we are left with is mostly anecdotal accounts a study carried out by coventry university within the last decade has uncovered high levels of infrasound in many of the alleged hot spots but whilst this might account for feelings of unease or auditory anomalies it would rarely if ever result in hallucinations of

full-bodied apparitions whatever the case may be whether people really are seeing the spirits of those who have tragically lost their lives in these tunnels or are simply repeating well-established ghost stories for their 15 minutes of fame it is probably best to approach the london underground with an open mind more often than not it is the people who expect to see something who witness nothing at all and those who expect to see nothing who end up having a life-changing experience [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] bedtime stories