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Ghosts Of The Glasgow Subway

Roland Deschain

All things serve the beam
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Sep 8, 2015
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http://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/st-enoch-poltergeist-shields-road-12023539

Beware! After reading this you may never want to catch the Subway again as ghouls have been terrorising Glaswegians for more than 120 years
Sightings of ghosts and ghouls have been terrorising Glaswegians travelling on the city's Subway since it was opened in 1896.

As the tunnels for the Subwaywere carved deep under Glasgow's streets in the late 19th century, workers had to excavate human remains from what had been medieval plague pits.

As the locations of the mass graves were not necessarily known, surprise discoveries of bone fragments and teeth were not uncommon.

This disturbance of the medieval remains has long been blamed for the hauntings on the Subway.

And seven apparitions in particular have been spotted so often, they have become recognised as resident paranormal entities by ghost experts.

Here we list the seven.


1. The West Street/Shields Road Clatter
The Clatter was first encountered by workers digging the tunnels between the West Street and Shields Road stations.

A cloud-like spirit would emerge from a wall, starting as a small ball of light at first before expanding and engulfing the whole area and anyone standing nearby.

Workers reported seeing the disembodied faces of dead souls in the cloud.

It was called The Clatter due to the loud and intense clattering noise which accompanied the cloud's appearance.

2. The demon child of West Street
A demon, described as half-boy, half-animal has been spotted on a number of occasions loitering in the tunned near the West Street station.

He would appear out of the shadows before quickly disappearing again.

And the demon would often be seen devouring something, usually raw meat, when he appeared.


3. The St Enoch poltergeist

poltergeist activity began at the original St Enoch Station, which still stands in St Enoch Square, in 1942.

At that time the station was also the headquarters of the Glasgow District Subway Railway Company.

It was the railway company staff who first reported poltergeist activity and saw objects move and levitate.

A secretary claimed to have been knocked to the floor by an unseen force, and a grey-green coloured substance was seen coming from a room used to store files.

An executive also claimed a poltergeist had tied his shoelaces together during a meeting.


4. The Lady of Hillhead
This apparition has been reported as a 'friendly ghost' by those that have spotted her.

The lady, who is very beautiful and dressed in a 1930s style evening gown has been seen walking up and down the platform at Hillhead and also standing near the edge.

She is described as giving off a vibe of happiness and has been heard singing, laughing and whistling.

Drawing the attention of spotters, she then disappears into thin air.


5. The blind beggar ghost of West Street
The ghost of a hunched beggar blue with cold has been spotted outside West Street street station since the early 1900s.

He is believed to be the ghost of beggar Robert Cobble who was well known in Glasgow at the start of the 20th century for dressing in bizarre costumes and claiming to be heir to the throne of Scotland.

He was from a wealthy background but ended up on the streets due to problems with alcoholism.

He lost his sight due to injuries suffered in an attack while he was sleeping rough and succumbed to the cold outside West Street station around 1900.


6. The Grey Lady of Shields Road
The grey lady spotted at Shields Road station has manifested in a number of ways since the 1920s.

Some believe she is the spirit of a young woman who died after falling on to the tracks there in 1922.

She sometimes manifests visually with a grey complexion or wearing a grey dress.

Other times her footsteps are heard running along the platform and lights have been seen to flicker as she moves between them.


7. The cat ghost of St Enoch
This ghost has only ever been reported by workers carrying maintenance on the Subway at St Enoch, as all sightings take place between midnight and 3am.

Workers report seeing the animal running along the platform before it disappears into thin air, right in front of their eyes.
 
Fascinating, though the raw-meat-eating demon sounds a bit Deathline to me! :rolleyes:

Yep, I could hear "mind the doors" as I was reading it. Also, I'm pretty sure Glasgow didn't have plague pits - or certainly none which were disturbed during the creation of the subway. Hardly anybody uses West Street and Shields Road, so it's amazing that that's where most of the sightings are from. There's also no contemporary accounts of "well known" Robert Cobble that I can find.
I have walked part of the tracks after hours with a couple of maintenance workers, and they told me they hadn't experienced or heard of anything ghostly in all their years working there.
 
Yep, I could hear "mind the doors" as I was reading it. Also, I'm pretty sure Glasgow didn't have plague pits - or certainly none which were disturbed during the creation of the subway. Hardly anybody uses West Street and Shields Road, so it's amazing that that's where most of the sightings are from. There's also no contemporary accounts of "well known" Robert Cobble that I can find.
I have walked part of the tracks after hours with a couple of maintenance workers, and they told me they hadn't experienced or heard of anything ghostly in all their years working there.

Do you think the plague pits bit is getting confused with London? They certainly did have them that they had to move (and I think hasn't cross rail had issues too?)?

Why is it that underground railways have so many ghosts? Is it because the ground magnifies things? Or that it's the surroundings or the quiet? Or that building that far down upsets things that shouldn't be bothered?
 
After reading this you may never want to catch the Subway again as ghouls have been terrorising Glaswegians for more than 120 years

I had no idea! wow and wonderful!

Although I don't catch the clockwork orange these days as I've developed a compulsion to go under the train :( Very inconsiderate and messy and totally unnecessary. I have no idea why!
 
Although I don't catch the clockwork orange these days as I've developed a compulsion to go under the train :( Very inconsiderate and messy and totally unnecessary. I have no idea why!

I know the feeling. The Glasgow underground has what are known as "suicide pits". If you jump on the tracks in front of a train you won't get squished. You'll just end up under the train feeling rather silly.
 
You'll just end up under the train feeling rather silly.

that is THE most helpful thing you could have said! :clap::clap::clap:

no idea why Glasgow is so much worse than others......
 
I have a FOAF story about the clockwork orange.

A friend of a friend was finishing work in a city centre pub, and got the last train back on the inner circle. It was midweek and the carriage was almost empty. There's a young girl sitting opposite her, kind of neddy, but the now off duty barmaid doesn't look too much at her as she sits down. The only other passenger is an older guy sitting a few seats away, on the same side as the barmaid.

After a while, the barmaid looks up from her phone to see the girl opposite staring fixedly at her. Barmaid hastily looks away. Then cautiously glances back. The girl keeps staring right at her, face fixed in an aggressive grimace. Barmaid is getting distinctly uncomfortable, wondering how to diffuse the situation. She's really getting the creeps from this girl.

At this point the older guy, who's been watching the situation, gets up, and sits down beside the - now seriously freaked out - barmaid. He tells her to get off the train with him at the next stop, which is just coming up. The barmaid reasons that at least there are staff at the stations, she won't be quite as helpless as on the train itself, so when the train pulls in, she gets off. The guy then announces that he is a doctor, and that the girl doing the staring was actually dead.

Great FOAF stuff because it doesn't even make sense! Why would the 'doctor' escort the barmaid from the train, rather than offering CPR to the staring girl??? Brilliant silliness. Unless anyone knows otherwise...?
 
How long has the Glasgow tube been known as the Clockwork Orange? If it's prior to 1962, I shall have some strong words to say to my English (and I use the word advisedly) literature teachers.
 
How long has the Glasgow tube been known as the Clockwork Orange? If it's prior to 1962, I shall have some strong words to say to my English (and I use the word advisedly) literature teachers.

The term "Clockwork Orange" was first used in 1980 by this prat here (08:45):
Whereby it was jumped upon by various journalists, and has been "affectionately" referred to as such -in print only- ever since... despite the fact the rolling stock is no longer orange and also that no one in Glasgow ever has called it that in daily conversation. Never. Not once.
 
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The term "Clockwork Orange" was first used in 1980 by this prat here (08:45):
Whereby it was jumped upon by various journalists, and has been "affectionately" referred to as such -in print only- ever since... despite the fact the rolling stock is no longer orange and also that no one in Glasgow ever has called it that in daily conversation. Never. Not once.
.. although the term Clockwork Orange (as a film tile at least) was previously used in Stanley Kubrik's film of the same title in 1971 Belshazzar.
 
The term "Clockwork Orange" was first used in 1980 by this prat here (08:45):
Whereby it was jumped upon by various journalists, and has been "affectionately" referred to as such -in print only- ever since... despite the fact the rolling stock is no longer orange and also that no one in Glasgow ever has called it that in daily conversation. Never. Not once.
That knowledge gives me a great deal of pleasure, thank you.
 
.. although the term Clockwork Orange (as a film tile at least) was previously used in Stanley Kubrik's film of the same title in 1971 Belshazzar.
Which film was based on Anthony Burgess' novel of the same name, published in, um, 1962 :D (It is noted, amongst other things, for the use of Russian words to create the teen argot nadsat, which term itself is the Russian equivalent of the suffix -teen. I don't bear grudges, but my English teacher simply would not accept that the nadsat term "horrorshow", meaning good, came from the Russian word хорошо (khorosho), meaning good, when it clearly does. But, as I say, I wouldn't carry a grudge over 30 years. That would be silly. :oops:)
 
Yes, sorry, Swifty. I was, of course, referring to Glasgow Subway/Underground usage only there :D
Nothing to apologise to me for Belshazzar, you've just taught me the different usage of the term so thanks ! :) (something random I've learned today mate!)
 
How long has the Glasgow tube been known as the Clockwork Orange? If it's prior to 1962, I shall have some strong words to say to my English (and I use the word advisedly) literature teachers.

It wouldn't have been orange then.

I have a couple of books on the Glasgow Underground, both of which mention ghosts IIRC - I am not at home at the moment but will look them up and report back when I have a chance.
 
I've found two books. One is a very good work on the history of the 'subway' (for such was its original nickname), with many scholarly appendices and an extensive bibliography, but NO DARN INDEX!. So I'll have to read it again. It's 'Circles under the Clyde by John Wright and Ian Maclean, and if anyone is interested in the Underground's history (up to 1997, when it was published) I can thoroughly recommend it.

The other book is by W. B. Herbert, an amalgamated edition (I think) of two earlier books. While anecdotal to the point of uselessness, it lists the following apparitions :

1. Ghost passenger at Govan car sheds.

2. Ghost of a driver in the cab of one of the original trains.

3. Disembodied voices of women singing between Kelvinbridge and Hillhead.

4. Grey Lady near Shields Road station, reputed to be the ghost of a lady who fell under a train in 1922.

5 Mysterious lights and noises seen and heard by people working on the track between St Enochs and Bridge street.

Some of these, particularly the Grey Lady, tie up with items in OP's list.

However, that isn't the book I was thinking of because I regard it as mostly tosh , the other reference was thinking of was in a generally serious work by Hamilton Ellis. Will post with further information when (if) located.
 
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