CuriousIdent
Not yet SO old Great Old One
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2004
- Messages
- 1,510
- Location
- Warwickshire, England.
Timeslip at Waterloo Station
Location: Waterloo Station, London
Date: May / June 1992
Type:
Number of Persons Involved: 2
Interactions:
Source of Testimony: The FTMB thread Timeslip at Waterloo Station in the IHTM forum: https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/timeslip-at-waterloo-station.17728/
Description: To quote:
"Hello all! It's my first time posting here and just wanted to mention an experience I had, namely, back in May or June of 1992, I experienced what I can only think was a time slip.
Going up to London with a new boyfriend, we caught a train to Waterloo and then headed down into the underground. I can’t remember which entrance we took: I just remember heading down the escalators and seeing scraps of paper lazily blow past me up the other way. That was the first hint of weirdness. The paper wasn’t gusting like it normally would in the blast of subway air – this was deliberately slow mo.
It was at that point that I think I sensed the shift in atmosphere. From the normally bustling energy of Waterloo on a Saturday, it segued into a heavier depressing gloom. Everything was too quiet. Even though there were still people around, they all seemed subdued. It was almost like being underwater.
At the foot of the escalators, there were lines and lines of string, like multitudes of washing lines. Bits of cloth and rag were hung up on the lines, as though makeshift camps had been set up all along corridors and in any available spaces. It wasn’t just a couple of isolated areas, it felt like all the passages had been turned into living areas or camps. I don’t remember which underground line we were taking, but we seemed to be walking far further than usual. The strangest thing was, I felt so tense and at a gut level KNEW that the surroundings had flipped into something more alien, yet it never occurred to me to say something to my boyfriend.
Standing in a corner was a man in official uniform – I don’t really remember him, just have a sense that he was bareheaded, had shiny buttons on his jacket – whose presence made me feel no less uneasy. I was trying to convince myself that if he was there, it meant that all the weirdness of the clothes lines were somehow explicable. Only afterwards, when my boyfriend and I compared notes did we realise that we both sensed something archaic about his outfit and demeanour.
By the time I got on the semi-crowded tube train, I was beginning to feel seriously panicked. Sitting across from us was a man who looked close to tears, red faced, breathing frantically, a really scared expression on his face. My boyfriend gave a surreptitious nod in his direction – the first clue I had that I wasn’t actually the only one experiencing something disquieting. Then my boyfriend whispered, "Look, him too," and there was another man further down the carriage who looked in fear of his life. At that point, it STILL didn’t occur to us to ponder what the hell was going on – we just both thought that maybe we had a premonition or something and ought to get off the train immediately. Only afterwards did we realise it totally felt strange from the moment we headed down into the underground station.
I guess we both assume that maybe it was some kind of time slip or overlay back to maybe the second world war – I don’t know if they turned any parts of Waterloo stations into shelters.
Sorry it’s not as dramatic as hanging out with Marie Antoinette in Versailles, but it still creeped me out big time, and whenever I think about it, I still recall just how scared it made me.
...
It's weird how even though the experience doesn't sound rampantly dramatic, it's one of those situations where I can instantly recall the tangible wrongness and it still freaks me out.
Normally if anything happens, I find my innate scepticism kicks in - I'm sure if I was in a roomful of people and we were all confronted by a fully-fledged, all-singing all-dancing apparition, gloops of ectoplasm everywhere, an hour later I would already be rationalizing it away - but not that experience!"
Notes:
A couple of posters debated as to whether this might have been some kind of slip back to Waterloo undergrounds use as a bomb shelter during WW2
MorningAngel: I wonder if the man in uniform was an ARP warden or a policeman, although surely both should have helmets.
From the pictures I've looked up about the underground shelters I've not seen any washing hanging up, plenty of coats. I do wonder through if there was any ad hock toilet facilities that might have been sheilded by sheets. They wouldn't appear on pictures or films I'd have thought.
Although as eburacum pointed out:
“before the 60's, most railway employees and security staff were required to wear hats whenever they were on duty. In the war it would have been a tin hat, of course.”
Conversation shifted to the 1980s and Waterloo’s Cardboard City of homeless people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardboard_City_(London) ):
eburacum: but it doesn't normally extend into the Underground tunnels themselves. I suspect that you might have seen some kind of organised protest or celebration, especially since the homeless have recently been banned from all the food outlets at Waterloo station.
It was also discussed that depending on the thickness of the lengths of string (i.e. id closer to that of ropes) they could have been the equivalent of a ‘Two Penny Hangover’ – a Victorian Doss House concept, whereby individuals could rent a place on a length of rope to lie against in lieu of a proper surface to sleep on.
It is difficult to say with certainty that Waterloo was intentionally used as an Air Raid shelter during WW2. It was certainly not one of the eight deep level shelters built during the war.
At the outbreak of WW2 the British government were reluctant to allow their use as shelters.
“Reasons given were the spread of disease due to the lack of toilet facilities at many stations, the inherent danger of people falling onto the lines, and that people sheltering in the stations and tunnels might be tempted to stay in them day and night because they would feel safer there than outside the stations.”
They also weren’t immune to German bombing.
On 16 September 1940, at Marble Arch tube station, 20 people were killed.
On 14 October 1940, a bomb penetrated the road and tunnel at Balham tube station, blew up the water mains and sewage pipes, and killed 68 people. Mostly by drowning.
At Bank station a direct hit caused a crater of 120 ft by 100 ft on 11 January 1941, the road above the station collapsed and killed 56 occupants.
However, the highest death toll was caused during an accident at Bethnal Green tube station on 8 March 1943, when 1,500 people entered the station. The crowd suddenly panicked on hearing the sound of an unfamiliar explosion. Someone stumbled on the stairs, and the crowd pushing on, were falling on top of one another. 173 people were crushed to death in the disaster.
80 London tube stations were used officially as impromptu shelters by the end of the war. But I have been unable to find a list of which stations those were.
AsamiYamazaki has been inactive on the FTMB since May 2015.
Location: Waterloo Station, London
Date: May / June 1992
Type:
- Type 3: A sharp realistic image that surrounds the witness. People in the image seem unaware of the witness's presence, and there is no physical contact with elements in the perceived environment.
Number of Persons Involved: 2
Interactions:
- Visual – Change in Environmental Appearance and/or attire of persons in the vicinity.
Source of Testimony: The FTMB thread Timeslip at Waterloo Station in the IHTM forum: https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/timeslip-at-waterloo-station.17728/
Description: To quote:
"Hello all! It's my first time posting here and just wanted to mention an experience I had, namely, back in May or June of 1992, I experienced what I can only think was a time slip.
Going up to London with a new boyfriend, we caught a train to Waterloo and then headed down into the underground. I can’t remember which entrance we took: I just remember heading down the escalators and seeing scraps of paper lazily blow past me up the other way. That was the first hint of weirdness. The paper wasn’t gusting like it normally would in the blast of subway air – this was deliberately slow mo.
It was at that point that I think I sensed the shift in atmosphere. From the normally bustling energy of Waterloo on a Saturday, it segued into a heavier depressing gloom. Everything was too quiet. Even though there were still people around, they all seemed subdued. It was almost like being underwater.
At the foot of the escalators, there were lines and lines of string, like multitudes of washing lines. Bits of cloth and rag were hung up on the lines, as though makeshift camps had been set up all along corridors and in any available spaces. It wasn’t just a couple of isolated areas, it felt like all the passages had been turned into living areas or camps. I don’t remember which underground line we were taking, but we seemed to be walking far further than usual. The strangest thing was, I felt so tense and at a gut level KNEW that the surroundings had flipped into something more alien, yet it never occurred to me to say something to my boyfriend.
Standing in a corner was a man in official uniform – I don’t really remember him, just have a sense that he was bareheaded, had shiny buttons on his jacket – whose presence made me feel no less uneasy. I was trying to convince myself that if he was there, it meant that all the weirdness of the clothes lines were somehow explicable. Only afterwards, when my boyfriend and I compared notes did we realise that we both sensed something archaic about his outfit and demeanour.
By the time I got on the semi-crowded tube train, I was beginning to feel seriously panicked. Sitting across from us was a man who looked close to tears, red faced, breathing frantically, a really scared expression on his face. My boyfriend gave a surreptitious nod in his direction – the first clue I had that I wasn’t actually the only one experiencing something disquieting. Then my boyfriend whispered, "Look, him too," and there was another man further down the carriage who looked in fear of his life. At that point, it STILL didn’t occur to us to ponder what the hell was going on – we just both thought that maybe we had a premonition or something and ought to get off the train immediately. Only afterwards did we realise it totally felt strange from the moment we headed down into the underground station.
I guess we both assume that maybe it was some kind of time slip or overlay back to maybe the second world war – I don’t know if they turned any parts of Waterloo stations into shelters.
Sorry it’s not as dramatic as hanging out with Marie Antoinette in Versailles, but it still creeped me out big time, and whenever I think about it, I still recall just how scared it made me.
...
It's weird how even though the experience doesn't sound rampantly dramatic, it's one of those situations where I can instantly recall the tangible wrongness and it still freaks me out.
Normally if anything happens, I find my innate scepticism kicks in - I'm sure if I was in a roomful of people and we were all confronted by a fully-fledged, all-singing all-dancing apparition, gloops of ectoplasm everywhere, an hour later I would already be rationalizing it away - but not that experience!"
Notes:
A couple of posters debated as to whether this might have been some kind of slip back to Waterloo undergrounds use as a bomb shelter during WW2
MorningAngel: I wonder if the man in uniform was an ARP warden or a policeman, although surely both should have helmets.
From the pictures I've looked up about the underground shelters I've not seen any washing hanging up, plenty of coats. I do wonder through if there was any ad hock toilet facilities that might have been sheilded by sheets. They wouldn't appear on pictures or films I'd have thought.
Although as eburacum pointed out:
“before the 60's, most railway employees and security staff were required to wear hats whenever they were on duty. In the war it would have been a tin hat, of course.”
Conversation shifted to the 1980s and Waterloo’s Cardboard City of homeless people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardboard_City_(London) ):
eburacum: but it doesn't normally extend into the Underground tunnels themselves. I suspect that you might have seen some kind of organised protest or celebration, especially since the homeless have recently been banned from all the food outlets at Waterloo station.
It was also discussed that depending on the thickness of the lengths of string (i.e. id closer to that of ropes) they could have been the equivalent of a ‘Two Penny Hangover’ – a Victorian Doss House concept, whereby individuals could rent a place on a length of rope to lie against in lieu of a proper surface to sleep on.
It is difficult to say with certainty that Waterloo was intentionally used as an Air Raid shelter during WW2. It was certainly not one of the eight deep level shelters built during the war.
At the outbreak of WW2 the British government were reluctant to allow their use as shelters.
“Reasons given were the spread of disease due to the lack of toilet facilities at many stations, the inherent danger of people falling onto the lines, and that people sheltering in the stations and tunnels might be tempted to stay in them day and night because they would feel safer there than outside the stations.”
They also weren’t immune to German bombing.
On 16 September 1940, at Marble Arch tube station, 20 people were killed.
On 14 October 1940, a bomb penetrated the road and tunnel at Balham tube station, blew up the water mains and sewage pipes, and killed 68 people. Mostly by drowning.
At Bank station a direct hit caused a crater of 120 ft by 100 ft on 11 January 1941, the road above the station collapsed and killed 56 occupants.
However, the highest death toll was caused during an accident at Bethnal Green tube station on 8 March 1943, when 1,500 people entered the station. The crowd suddenly panicked on hearing the sound of an unfamiliar explosion. Someone stumbled on the stairs, and the crowd pushing on, were falling on top of one another. 173 people were crushed to death in the disaster.
80 London tube stations were used officially as impromptu shelters by the end of the war. But I have been unable to find a list of which stations those were.
AsamiYamazaki has been inactive on the FTMB since May 2015.
Last edited: