It should be on no surprise that beneath your very feet in the city of London, many tales lurk within the sprawling tube network. Since the railway network opened 20 to 150 people have thrown themselves upon the tracks annually. This morbid fact alone links with the suspicion that the tunnels are said to be haunted by the restless entities of those that once were. To add to the pot of spiritual unrest, sections of the tube line are said to have been built upon burial grounds and plague pits, they were used as shelters in the war and have seen the miscellaneous fatalities of a least a dozen a year to accidents, medical illness and crime.
Considering 1.33 billion passengers took the underground from 2019-2020, these fatality figures are remarkably low. London’s tube system is as reliable as it is safe, yet like any old institution is has its history.
Due to this most of the stations have regular hauntings and historical happenings associated with them. In a series of short articles I shall highlight the Tubes most infamous ghost stories. I was going to present them within one post but it would be an essay rather than an easily read article. Once concluded I shall put links to them all within one article for convenience.
The London Underground aka The Underground or the Tube, is the 12th busiest metro system in the world. Founded in January 1863 it was the worlds first underground passenger railway. The initial tunnels were built just under the ground, which was carried out using a cut and cover method. The rest of the network was later built with smaller circular tunnels, giving rise to the popular nickname: the Tube. This method allowed the tunnels to run far deeper than the previous ones.
Bethnal Green Tube Station
Famously many of the tube stations were used as air raid shelters during the German bombing raids of the Second World War. Regretfully not only did they save lives, but this time period also holds the record for largest loss of civilian life on the Underground, in a single incident. On March 1943 during a test of air raid sirens and the firing of new anti aircraft artillery, 173 people including 63 children were trampled to death in mass panic. They were attempting to take shelter in Bethnal Green Underground Station.
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| Photo from Imperial War Museum Archives |
Following heavy bombing of Berlin by the RAF on 1st March, 1943 many at the time anticipated a retaliatory strike by the German Luftwaffe. Tensions were high. The station held 7000 people at capacity and contained 5000 bunks to sleep in. The staircase was also only lit by one solitary 25 watt bulb.
By 8.27pm that evening around 2000 people had an made early rest in the shelter, pre-empting a German retaliation. It was at this time 60 experimental salvo rockets were fired into the nights sky by the new anti-aircraft battery. Unfamiliar to the population, the explosions startled those waiting to descend into the shelter. Mass panic followed and in less than 20 seconds hundreds were being crushed in a stampede.
This one incident was the worst in the Underground’s history. Far worse than the deaths from the Moorgate, King’s Cross and Paddington disasters along with the 7th of July bombings combined. Such a disaster leaves an imprint in the population of an area, some argue and believe that it leaves an imprint in the location itself. A supernatural malevolence. A haunting.
Many late at night have claimed to have heard screaming, shouting and crying within the station only to have seen no source of its origins or whereabouts. The only official recorded incident was in 1981. A Station Supervisor found himself alone on the premises. Turning off the station lights he returned to his office to attend to paperwork. While he worked he suddenly heard the sound of young children crying, soon followed by shouting, screaming and other unidentifiable noises. He left after around ten to fifteen minutes to escape the sound. He admitted to being unnerved by his experience.
In 2019 a memorial was erected to honour those that died in this tragedy.
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