misspelling of Nell Gwynne. Then the glass began to move about wildly. Suddenly frightened, the girls became aware of a presence in the room and one of them began to lose consciousness. The other became terrified as she heard senseless mumblings coming from the lips of her unconscious friend, and unaccountable scraping noises from the direction of a locked door that only led to a fire escape, and she rushed to a window and called for help. Soon the police arrived and rescued the frightened girls.
A former club owner, Mike Klinger, claimed that he and two other witnesses all saw a tall figure, cowled and shrouded, on the pavement near the Meard Street entrance to The Gargoyle, but the figure vanished into thin air as they watched. Dylan Thomas, the poet, told me that he found a unique and fascinating atmosphere at The Gargoyle. He was certain that the place was haunted and said he wouldn’t spend a night there for anything. Some witnesses have reported seeing a well-built young woman in a high-waisted dress and wearing a large flowered hat drift, rather than walk, across the floor of the club, and disappear near the lift shaft. The figure could well be Nell Gwynne herself.
Green Park has a haunted tree and the sounds of a 200-year-old duel at dawn.
GREEN PARK, PICCADILLY
Although formerly part of St James’s Park, Green Park has a very different atmosphere with its air of quiet mystery. Even on the brightest day there is a stillness, an air of expectancy, and a sensation of sadness along the shady walks and among the gnarled and ancient trees.
Green Park was only a meadow with a few trees and ditches in the days of Elizabeth I. In 1554, Royalist forces fought here to resist Sir Thomas Wyatt’s troops attacking London, and in the years that followed the park was the scene of numerous robberies, murders and rapes until well into the eighteenth century. It was also a favourite duelling-ground. The later Earl of Bath was wounded here in a duel; Viscount Ligonier and Count Vittorio Alfieri, the Italian poet, fought here in 177I; Sir Henry Colt fought Beau Fielding, the lover of the Duchess of Cleveland, behind Bridgewater House where the duchess was residing. The ghostly sounds of the latter duel are said to be heard at dawn on the anniversary of the fight. For several minutes the misty air crackles with the sound of battle, the footfalls of the combatants are heard on the damp ground and the signs of breathing billow above the ground mist.
There is one particular tree in Green Park that has a bad reputation. People never slumber beneath its twisted branches, summer lovers never linger in its shade and even birds shun its gnarled and ancient branches. I have talked with two park attendants who swear they have heard sounds emanating from the tree. There is the harsh and loud sound of a man’s voice in conversation that ceases almost as soon as you become aware of it. There is a low and cunning laugh that strikes a chill into the hearer, and also a strange and sad groaning sound like that of someone in mortal agony and utter despair. The tree is a favourite one for suicides in Green Park and in fact few people fail to discern a sense of gloom, and a sudden feeling of sadness and despair overwhelming them in the vicinity of this tree, so that they are glad to move quickly on to less unwelcoming parts of the park. It is not difficult to imagine a person contemplating suicide, reaching the final decision and hanging himself, as so many have done, from the ‘tree of death’ as it is called. Sometimes visitors have had the sensation of being followed when they pass the tree. Children rarely play there, and occasionally an unexplained figure in black has been reported, standing close to the trunk. It is a tall, watchful figure that disappears when the person who sees it looks a second time.
THE GRENADIER, HYDE PARK CORNER
One of the best-known haunted pubs in London is The Grenadier, Wilton Row, behind St George’s Hospital
A former club owner, Mike Klinger, claimed that he and two other witnesses all saw a tall figure, cowled and shrouded, on the pavement near the Meard Street entrance to The Gargoyle, but the figure vanished into thin air as they watched. Dylan Thomas, the poet, told me that he found a unique and fascinating atmosphere at The Gargoyle. He was certain that the place was haunted and said he wouldn’t spend a night there for anything. Some witnesses have reported seeing a well-built young woman in a high-waisted dress and wearing a large flowered hat drift, rather than walk, across the floor of the club, and disappear near the lift shaft. The figure could well be Nell Gwynne herself.
Green Park has a haunted tree and the sounds of a 200-year-old duel at dawn.
GREEN PARK, PICCADILLY
Although formerly part of St James’s Park, Green Park has a very different atmosphere with its air of quiet mystery. Even on the brightest day there is a stillness, an air of expectancy, and a sensation of sadness along the shady walks and among the gnarled and ancient trees.
Green Park was only a meadow with a few trees and ditches in the days of Elizabeth I. In 1554, Royalist forces fought here to resist Sir Thomas Wyatt’s troops attacking London, and in the years that followed the park was the scene of numerous robberies, murders and rapes until well into the eighteenth century. It was also a favourite duelling-ground. The later Earl of Bath was wounded here in a duel; Viscount Ligonier and Count Vittorio Alfieri, the Italian poet, fought here in 177I; Sir Henry Colt fought Beau Fielding, the lover of the Duchess of Cleveland, behind Bridgewater House where the duchess was residing. The ghostly sounds of the latter duel are said to be heard at dawn on the anniversary of the fight. For several minutes the misty air crackles with the sound of battle, the footfalls of the combatants are heard on the damp ground and the signs of breathing billow above the ground mist.
There is one particular tree in Green Park that has a bad reputation. People never slumber beneath its twisted branches, summer lovers never linger in its shade and even birds shun its gnarled and ancient branches. I have talked with two park attendants who swear they have heard sounds emanating from the tree. There is the harsh and loud sound of a man’s voice in conversation that ceases almost as soon as you become aware of it. There is a low and cunning laugh that strikes a chill into the hearer, and also a strange and sad groaning sound like that of someone in mortal agony and utter despair. The tree is a favourite one for suicides in Green Park and in fact few people fail to discern a sense of gloom, and a sudden feeling of sadness and despair overwhelming them in the vicinity of this tree, so that they are glad to move quickly on to less unwelcoming parts of the park. It is not difficult to imagine a person contemplating suicide, reaching the final decision and hanging himself, as so many have done, from the ‘tree of death’ as it is called. Sometimes visitors have had the sensation of being followed when they pass the tree. Children rarely play there, and occasionally an unexplained figure in black has been reported, standing close to the trunk. It is a tall, watchful figure that disappears when the person who sees it looks a second time.
THE GRENADIER, HYDE PARK CORNER
One of the best-known haunted pubs in London is The Grenadier, Wilton Row, behind St George’s Hospital
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