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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National
Ross Lydall

Is the London Underground haunted? TfL reveals recent 'ghost' sighting on the Tube

Are there any ghosts on the Tube?

It may seem an improbable question, but a recent sighting has been reported on the Metropolitan line.

Transport for London has been searching its records for sightings of ghosts, spirits, ghouls, poltergeists and banshees on the London Underground – in fact anything that may qualify as part of the “paranormal”.

It follows one of the most unusual freedom of information requests received by TfL.

One unnamed person asked TfL to publish “any reports of paranormal activity at Tube, DLR, London Overground, Elizabeth Line and Tram locations made to TfL since January 1, 2022”.

The request, which was submitted on January 2, also requested the name of the station nearest to any sightings – and “a copy of any internal staff logbooks/documents for ghost sightings at the Aldgate East station”.

Aldgate East station, which is served by the Hammersmith and City and District lines, opened on October 6, 1884 – eight years after nearby Aldgate station.

Aldgate East was moved a short distance in 1938 to solve signalling problems associated with the track curving sharply as it approached the station.

The reason for the interest in Aldgate East could be its close proximity to the area where the five “Jack the Ripper” murders took place in the East End, four years after the station’s opening.

In her reply to the request, Gemma Jacob, TfL’s senior FOI case officer, said: “I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require.

“We have carried out a keyword search of all London Underground incident reports over the requested timeframe using the following words: ghost, paranormal, spirit, apparition, ghoul, phantom, poltergeist, banshee.

Aldwych station is one of the London Underground's fabled ‘ghost stations’

“The search returned 156 results, but only one of them related to paranormal activity.

“This related to a distressed 15-year-old boy at King’s Cross on the Metropolitan line in December 2023, who also mentioned that he had seen ghosts.

“The remainder of results were records talking about being in ‘good spirits’ (typically a customer or train driver after an incident) or spirit as in alcohol (customers who were intoxicated/carrying a bottle of spirit).”

During the construction of the lines and tunnels that form the modern-day Underground it is known that cemeteries and plague pits were disrupted.

Many construction workers and passengers have died on the Tube – adding to suspicions that it is haunted.

There are a number of “ghost stations” on the Tube network.

These include Down Street, which is located in Mayfair on the Piccadilly line between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner.

It closed in 1932, after just 25 years of use, and was used during the Second World War as a secret bunker for Winston Churchill and the War Cabinet.

The British Museum station, on the Central line, closed in 1933 when Holborn station was expanded.

But construction workers have reported seeing the ghost of Amen-Ra, or Amun-Ra, an ancient Egyptian princess, who is said to wander the tunnels at night wearing a loin cloth and headdress.

Other “ghost” stations include Aldwych, which closed in 1994, and Dover Street, which has been incorporated into Green Park station.

At Aldgate, “paranormal activity” has reportedly been traced back more than 100 years. This includes the ghosts of three young girls from the Sullivan family who died in fire while at home in Aldgate in 1896.

More recently, a track worker who survived being electrocuted in 2000 was said by a colleague to have been comforted by the ghost of an elderly women as he lay injured.

As part of its response to the FoI request, TfL also searched its customer contact centre database and found an average of 30 results per month - meaning there are likely to be more than 1,000 cases that would need to be reviewed to check whether they contain anything relevant.

“From previous similar searches it is likely that the majority of these will relate to reports of phantom/ghost Oyster card charges,” Ms Jacob said.

She said that such a search would exceed the £450 FoI limit on how much TfL is permitted to spend answering a FoI request.

She added: “We do not have any reports of paranormal activity on our Trams, Elizabeth line, DLR, or London Overground services.”

Ms Jacobs said that TfL did not have internal staff logbooks/documents of “ghost sightings” at Aldgate East.

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