Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Permanent Londoners


It has been estimated that as many as two in every five people “seen” on a busy London Street
are “Permanent Londoners”: the undead doomed to spend eternity among the living…

 This is the claim made by London Ghost Walks.


 Last night under a glowing full moon we met up with some friends at St. Paul's Station.
There we joined one of London Walk's ghostologist
to hear the stories of the "Permanent Londoners" that haunt the
narrow streets of the old City of London. 


We met him in the shadows of St. Paul's Cathedral to explore this ancient section of London.  The original walled city built by the Romans was in this area and the rest of London grew up around it. 
It is about one square mile and contains some of the most interesting historical sites in London.
And it is reportedly one of the most haunted.  

This area includes St. Bartholemew's Hospital which was founded in 1123.  

It is also the original site of the notorious Newgate Prison 
which was called by William Defoe "...an emblem of hell itself."

We also stopped outside of St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate were you can see the original hand bell that announced the executions at Newgate.  

Hospitals, prisons and churches... places of life and death and untold stories.


 
We stopped at the bombed out ruins of the Christ Church Greyfriars
to hear about the She-Wolf of France, Queen Isabella who is said to still roam the gardens.


We spent the next few hours walking along dark, cobbled streets, through courtyards and churchyards stopping every so often to hear another story.  




Is she being followed by an orb of light?



 
London is even more beautiful at night.  It's so hard to capture the atmosphere with a camera.
Our guide was a wonderful storyteller and really brought the history to life.



This is the only exterior statue of Henry VIII found in London at the entrance to St. Barts.
We are definitely going to explore this area again in daylight. 

 

Our guide shared many fantastic tales of hauntings including the stories of the
Cock Lane Ghost and the Baby Farmer executed at Newgate Prison. 
If you have some free time, you really should click on some of the links in this post.
So much good stuff out there.




It was the perfect way to celebrate Halloween in London.
We really appreciated that the focus was on the stories and the history.
It wasn't cheesy and silly with people in white sheets jumping out at us for a cheap fright. 


The temperature was quickly dropping so we popped into a local restaurant
to get warm with some squash soup with roasted pumpkin seeds.
After a late dinner with good friends, we headed home.  

 I would highly recommend London Walks.
They have ghost walks all over London, seven days a week, 
year round (excluding Dec 24th & 25th).

They also have a full schedule of other interesting walks:
Jack the Ripper, Harry Potter, Pub Walks and more.

It's a terrific way to experience and learn about London.
We will definitely be joining them for some more walks.

Happy Halloween, my friends!

What about you?  Do you have a good ghost story to share?

xoxo
Selena 

This is NOT a sponsored post.  We paid the full £9 each for the walk and all opinion are my own.  All photos are by me.

11 comments:

  1. Sounds fun! I like spooky things that aren't like Thorpe Park's fright night or whatever they call it. You couldn't pay me enough to do that!
    (But I have to say, you had me at Harry Potter walk! Will definitely have to drag the Fiance to that!)

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  2. What great shots! Thanks for joining us :)

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  3. Fantastic photos! I've been on the Jack the Ripper walk, it's well worth it, one of the men that do the walk, his name escapes me if a Ripperologist (Apparently there are such things) and he has written a couple of books on Jack the Ripper and has helped with the history of Ripper in the movie "From Hell"... I'd like to go on this ghost walk though, we just haven't yet, oh and the ruins that will suddenly just pop up in the city, I just love it, I can't get enough! Did you get my message on facebook? Let me know and I will go this weekend to Sams.
    Happy Halloween!
    This is the PERFECT posting for Halloween!!

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  4. Great photos taken at night- they are hard to capture!! What a wonderful way to see and hear about the more sinister side of London!

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  5. I cannot thank you enough for allowing me to see London through your eyes. I am grounded here in Kentucky but your photos allowed me to glimpse what I am missing and I so appreciate your taking the time to share. Again, I hope you continue so I can be transported to a world I only dream of.

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  6. Well, I found your photos highly atmospheric. I didn't know this area was the oldest. What a great way to spend Halloween - hope you didn't miss trick or treating too much.

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  7. That was just brilliant - loved the spooky photos!

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  8. Great photos! I know someone who did theJack the Ripper walk and thought it was fab.

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  9. Oh what fun! And the photos are very atmospheric :D

    I shared by Halloween 'ghost' story over at Knitsofacto on Wednesday, I think I made a few spines tingle!

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  10. So I've left this post open for an entire day (since yesterday) because I was reading ALLLLLL the links- I love ghost stories and old stories of morbidity!

    This sounds like it was great- I'll have to keep it in mind for when we come back ;)

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  11. Thanks for finally talking about > "Permanent Londoners" < Liked it!

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