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Ghostly locations to photograph in London, any ideas?

M

Moocowthegreat

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Aug 18, 2004
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Hello all i've been lurking here for a long time thinking about this idea and have now finally got round to posting it!

I'm a landscape photograper particulary interested in taking photos of places with a story behind them. For example when i was living in Devon i took a lot of photos at places mentioned in the many myths and folktales about Dartmoor, Postbridge - where the hairy hands are said to drive people off the road, Whistmans Wood - where the devils hounds live and go hunting at night for babies that havent been baptised, The Warren House Inn - where a fire has been burning for over a hundred years and the devil once stopped to play a game of cards.

Now I've moved to London and i'd love to carry on with this idea and maybe even put a book together. I've only been living here a few months and still dont know my way around very well, so has anyone got any ideas of locations to get me started?

I really appreciate your help and if I do manage to get a book together you will definatley get credit :)

Moocow
 
Welcome to London! Soon you'll be sucked into its strange magnetism and the rest of the country without London's borders will fade into a misty grey as if it almost didn't exist.

Occasionally London forum members meet up (even ones who have long been booted off the board for cussing and spitting) so keep an eye out.

Me I love London, I've got a few research suggestions for you.

The City is old and stuffed to the gills with history and stories, not so sure about folklore exactly. Pretty much any location you can think of has a story, and it's pretty eerie going around the City at the weekend. I used to work near St Mary Axe (the axe was apparently used by Ghengis Khan to slaughter a thousand virgins) which is in the street called Undershaft, named for the huge maypole that used to be erected there every spring (there's a sign to say a replica of the maypole is near the steps, but i was never able to locate said steps). Streetnames in the City often go back a thousand years: Old Street was recorded as Old Street at the end of the 12th Century.

Stormkhan (or was it Snipe?) arranged a ghostwalk for us ages ago, which was cool.

Any other non-ghostly kind of walking tour of the city is well worth it too.

Reading: Peter Ackroyd's London: The Biographyis a hefty tome but well worth reading and it will give you a real flavour of the weight of centuries of London.

Oh, a website I was looking at today that was quite cool Derelict London

It'd take a lifetime to get to know this place, but some of us find it addictive. [/url]
 
Try 'Walking Haunted London' by Richard Jones. Gives a good range of easily do-able walks, with easy to understand maps. It also gives a good discription of historical facts and ghostly experiences.
 
Well if taking pictures of Highgate cemetry is allowed then try going there.

The place is a tourist site so theres obviously stories to be told from there.
 
MaxMolyneux said:
Well if taking pictures of Highgate cemetry is allowed then try going there.

The place is a tourist site so theres obviously stories to be told from there.
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Except one, which won't be, thank you very much.
 
The Berkley Square location might be worth photographing for achitectual merit but ... it'd be to your credit if you recorded summat paranormal.

The City is worth a camera, since it holds all the futuristic and (to me) barren in finance and financial business. Past 7 o'clock in the weekday evening and you enter a ghosttown. But the clashing architecture of new and old is visually stunning.

If you're looking for spook photos; ah, well, we are talking about different times and places.

Oh, and Lemonpie - We were on the walk but it was Guttersnipe who organised us. Just to straighten out yer memory! I've still got some photos!
 
Highgate Cementary had a vampire in the early 70's, apparently reports of eyes were seen floating above the gates and the odd dead animal was found. It inspired the dreadful Hammer pic "Dracula 1972 AD". (Johnny Alucard....I ask you).

I'd recommend taking some photos around about the brass plaque on the traffic island at Edgeware Road / Oxford Street / Bayswater Road around the Marble Arch. That's where the Tyburn was, the gallows that many people hanged from including William Wallace.

Geoffrey Howse's book about "Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in London's West End" might suggest some cool locations in and around Soho but being new to London...you just be careful when your out and about with camera.

mooks out
 
Moooksta said:
Highgate Cementary had a vampire in the early 70's, apparently reports of eyes were seen floating above the gates and the odd dead animal was found. It inspired the dreadful Hammer pic "Dracula 1972 AD". (Johnny Alucard....I ask you).
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Steady on there, Mooksta mate. Allegations about vampires and Highgate are still subject to some controversy and legal action.
Aside from the "strigoi" link, Highgate is a wonderful peice of macabre history.
 
Last time I made a thread about that place all we said was how nice the place looked! :lol:
 
Stormkhan said:
Steady on there, Mooksta mate. Allegations about vampires and Highgate are still subject to some controversy and legal action.
Aside from the "strigoi" link, Highgate is a wonderful peice of macabre history.
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Edited by Mooks (12/06/06)

mooks out
 
"Strigoi" is another term/name for vampires.

And just because we don't care, doesn't mean that certain legal injunctions are no longer in place.
Highgate is a pretty funky place without wannabe Vampire killers trying to stake (ahem) claims on the place. Dressed in black velvet, lace and lousy makeup notwithstanding.

Come on, Mook, keep up!
:D
 
My advice...don't put Highgate Vampire into a search engine!

mooks out
 
Moooksta said:
My advice...don't put Highgate Vampire into a search engine!

mooks out
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My thread was started without the search engine but the great people of Fortean warned me of the dark spirits that will haunt me.
 
The Minories near Aldgate has a couple of spooks. The Minories is actually named after an old convent and in an office I used to work in part of the walls were found when they excavated the building. If you walk down the Minories and turn right into Haydon St halfway down is a little car park. There have been many sightings, very early in the morning, of a "lady in a white sari" floating a few feet off the ground, as though she's walking on a raised floor. The reason why this person is described as a "lady in a white sari" is how the local Bangladeshi community have reported it.

I know this because on one such occassion the local bobby popped in to ask if the company I worked for (no longer there) had any CCTV of the car park where the lady was spotted earlier that morning. Apparently, this was a common occurance and it is thought it's a nun going to mass as it's always reported at about 5.30am.

When the building was excavated the builders found a grave with a Roman body in it. The body had a pot next to it which archiologists think came from Cologne. Weirdly, the company who had bought the land and turning it into offices and who I worked for were called The Cologne Re.
 
Stormkhan said:
That's not dark - just depressing.
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What cheap Vodka's depressing? :lol:

Not a drinker like was just thinking up the best joke I could. :lol:
 
Welcome! London has a story in just about every old building so you should find plenty to pique your interest.

Here's an excellent article that appeared in last Hallowe'en's Time Out:
http://www.timeout.com/london/features/print/89.html

And here's another one:
http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2005/ ... street.php

The John Snow is a fab pub and haunted. If you're after atmosphere, yes Highgate is good, all over the village you'll find photogenic spots and some excellent old piles. However I prefer the hinterland sort of in and around the North Circular - particularly near Blackhorse Road tube station, all abandoned bus depots and rusty bridges.
 
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