The Clerkenwell House of Correction, London
Managers often heard the melancholy sobs of a little girl...
Mere minutes from where I lived for much of the 2000s/2010s, is the Clerkenwell (old) Prison, aka the Clerkenwell House of Correction or Middlesex House of Detention -and ‘The Tench’. The prison opened in 1847 and became hideously crowded with prisoners awaiting trial and deportation, housing as many as 30 inmates to a room. It was demolished (above ground) in 1890, and the surviving 9,000 sq ft vaults became known as the "Clerkenwell Catacombs".
A small section of the 2.5 acres of tunnels was opened as a museum in 1993 and also used for movies and parties until it was closed in 2000. A genuinely eerie place, some visitors claimed to see shadowy figures in the creeping darkness of the tunnels; others asking who the old lady was who seemed to be searching for something - when offered assistance, she would look up and vanish into thin air.
Managers often heard the melancholy sobs of a little girl, some believing a lost child was wandering the maze-like gaol, one commenting, “Children were imprisoned here and the anguish they suffered must have been terrible. Perhaps this little girl's grief has somehow impregnated the stone and some people are just sensitive to that sort of thing."
A "very unpleasant" ghoul apparently stalked women who wandered alone through the dank passageways.
Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker, Essex
This bunker was active until the end of 1994...
Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker is a massive, deep, Cold War bunker designed as a regional HQ. It was decommissioned in 1992 and opened to the public as a tourist attraction. The bunker was built 125 feet (38 m) underground with an entrance through a prosaic fake bungalow set amongst trees. The complex was built to house hundreds of personnel, provisions, and air, sustaining them for up to three months.
There is a story that a workman drowned in concrete during the construction of the bunker’s walls (10ft wide and 100ft deep). Spectres are said to roam the corridors, and a grey figure of an ‘unusually tall elderly lady’ moves from room to room. An RAF officer has been spotted on several occasions while a woman angrily instructs visitors to leave the building. A visitor walking through the dormitory was told to ‘go back’ by a disembodied voice.
Rocks have reportedly been lobbed at folk, crashes heard from empty rooms at night, strange lights and mists materialising from thin air, and wafting, foul smells. All without current explanation.
The main paranormal area is the base’s sick bay, containing stacks of easy-to-construct post-apocalypse cardboard coffins where dark shadowy figures lurk and a medium-confirmed malevolent presence emits feelings of dread and foreboding, which visitors have experienced. This horror supposedly originates from long before the bunker was built. Perhaps a brand of Neolithic or Pagan Saxon curse?
Drakelow Tunnels, Staffordshire
Reputedly one of the most haunted places in Britain...
Drakelow Tunnels are another large former underground military complex, built beneath the Blakeshall Estate north of Kidderminster, Worcestershire. The tunnels are reputedly one of the most haunted places in Britain.
The bunkers were used during the Second World War and the Cold War; rumours circulated that seven people died in the Drakelow Tunnels as a result of various accidents, including an impact with a truck, riding on the conveyor belts, and a roof collapse. In 2016, paranormal investigator Anthony Mark watched his footage from the tunnels and said he saw a ghostly face directly in front of him.
A spirit named ‘Oswald’ is believed to be one of the people who died there many years ago, a mischievous spirit who is known to pull hair, move objects, and touch people throughout the tunnels.
After the site was decommissioned in 1993, some claim it has been used for satanic worship, going so far as to open a door to an evil realm. Mediums have felt a demonic entity at the base, most often in the canteen.
Fye Bridge, Norwich
Said to be a dunking site for accused witches...
In the mid-1600s, East Anglia found itself at the height of the infamous witch trials, a dark chapter in history when many people, mostly women, were tried and killed for allegedly partaking in witchcraft. Fye Bridge is said to be the site of a ducking stool, into which an accused witch would be placed and dunked into the River Wensum below.
The accused were dunked into the river, as water was considered to be so pure that it repelled evil. If a woman survived the ducking, then she was a witch. If the woman drowned, this meant she was innocent, though unfortunately dead. Before the advent of the witch hunts, the ducking stool at the bridge was also used as a means of punishment of humiliation for "disorderly women" and "dishonest tradesmen".
Fye Bridge is said to be home to the ghost of a woman who was tried on the site and later burned for witchcraft at the nearby Lollard’s Pit. Those who have seen her say that the spectre is dressed in rags and begs strangers to help her pick up a dropped bundle of sticks that was used to kindle the fire that killed her. Local folklore says that if you do, you will surely die in a fire within the year.
Coltishall Bridge, Norfolk
A black dog 'as big as a calf and as noiseless as death'...
There is an abiding belief that the demonic hound Black Shuck* hangs out at Coltishall Bridge at night. A middle-aged couple from the village stopped on the bridge to light a cigarette in the 1930s and saw a black dog 'as big as a calf and as noiseless as death' pass by them, whilst another pair heard the creature approach them on the bridge with its heavy breathing and pattering feet. In 1950s, a young woman and her future husband were dawdling on the bridge at dusk when they claimed to see a black dog the size of a small pony. It looked at the terrified couple but kept walking and eventually vanished.
A decade later, two RAF officers drove across the bridge but were forced to break sharply as an enormous black dog crossed the road, glaring at them before disappearing. A gigantic Labrador, as high as their car at around 53 inches tall, they stated.
*In 1850, Reverend ES Taylor wrote regarding BS: 'This phantom I have heard many persons in East Norfolk and even Cambridgeshire describe as having seen as a black shaggy dog, with fiery eyes and of immense size, and who visits churchyards at midnight.’
Tower Bridge’s Dead Man’s Hole, London
The concrete ‘fishing out’ ramp for collection of the dead still stands...
London’s stately Tower Bridge stands where dead bodies floating in the river used to regularly wash up, so part of the structure included a place for storing the recovered corpses. The concrete ‘fishing out’ ramp for collection of the dead still stands at the north side of the bridge. The corpses were placed in rooms behind the doors at the top of the stairs, where the bodies could be claimed by relatives. But many corpses were never claimed; some bodies actually exploded due to gasses from their decomposition. Which couldn’t have been much fun for those nearby. This explains the easy-to-clean white tiles that line Dead Man’s Hole.
The dead? Well, they were generally victims of murder, suicide, and accidental drowning. Those executed at the nearby Tower of London were also transferred to Dead Man’s Hole.
Devil's Bridge on ‘Spooky Lane’, Hertfordshire
A Roman legionary also stands to attention, guarding the road...
This sunken, apparently Roman road, known as ‘Spooky Lane’ by locals, features in many urban legends, with a pair of ghosts known to walk the surrounding area, and visitors claiming to see the ghostly figures, even in daylight hours.
One spectre on the old road is a silent, robed monk walking towards a monastery that used to exist nearby. A Roman legionary also stands to attention, guarding the road. Strange sounds and mysterious red lights from the surrounding bushes have also been reported, although this may be due to the unsavory incidents of ‘dogging’ in the area.
Witchcraft was practiced under the bridge, as evidenced by the pentagrams and 666s chalked on the supporting walls. Horses and dogs are scared when they near the structure, whilst cars suffer breakdowns and return to working order moments later.
Built around the time of the third Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803), the road is a carriage drive to the stately home Ashridge House, situated along the Chilterns Golden Valley. It is said the duke had the old Roman road sunken to hide the lady of the house from the stare of the leering local peasant workers and other plebs.
Greenwich Foot Tunnel, London
It's rumoured that the tunnel is patrolled by an eight-year-old girl...
The echoing acoustics and cold atmosphere make this tunnel an ideal location for paranormal activity. It's rumoured that the tunnel is patrolled by an eight-year-old girl who communicates to travellers on empty late nights. Other visitations include a Victorian dressed couple holding hands who walk towards people; and also disembodied voices and the sound of footsteps with no visible owners.
Stephen Arnell’s novel The Great One is available on Amazon Kindle:
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