ghost stories of sydenham?

[leaf]

along the lines of the very interesting local history threads by falkor i wonder if anyone has any ghost stories relating to the sydenham area and its buildings past and present?

i know i run the risk of being shot down here by the 'non-believers',but i think local folklore is interesting and some local history stories are often the start of ghost stories or urban myths that develop.

thanks all

leaf

[sarahc]

Hi Leaf,

Brilliant topic. Unfortunately I do not have any ghost stories, but I really look forward to (hopefully) reading other peoples. There must be some out there - so come on folks, lets get scared!

Sarah

[leaf]

hi sarah

thanks,i too love to hear spooky stories!

i have heard lots of stories from people who tell them in the first hand[local people]but for obvious reasons i dont feel i can just post them here[giving location details].

i know of two locations in the area that were subject to exorcism/spiritual cleansing!
but i will wait to see if they are mentioned by the residents concerned,though i will say that one of them was a bar/restaurant in a place not too far from sydenham but not sydenham

come on sydenhamites,share your stories!

[Juwlz]

I read somewhere that Sydenham Girls school (the one on Westwood hill is haunted by a woman (a nun I think it said?) I don't know any more about it but maybe someone else does?

[Falkor]

In the late 80s when I did most of my adventuring around Sydenham before my teens, my friend and I used to be extremely scared of the South-Western area of Wells Park besides the path to the old zoo bit that used to be there. Up the side hill to this wooded part of land, strange things occured amongst the trees on several occasions, and we used to run for our lives! I can't remember if there was a house there, but we called this area "The Witch's House"! I revisited the park only a month back for the first time in ages, including this haunted part, but nothing happened. However, I still felt some butterflies in my stomach.

[lemonade]

Hello Leaf

Yes as SarahC says, brilliant topic! ...I'm the one who'll probably be "Shot Down" after this:-

When I was about 10 my Sister and I were about to leave home one morning to attend a Summer School during the Summer Holidays. During the same time my Dad had his Provisional Driving Licence Renewed (it used to be every year) and he always used to give me his old one in still in mint condition, complete with the plastic holder....I was looking through the pockets of my jacket whilst it was hanging up on a clothes peg as I wanted to see if I had any extra pennies for the tuck shop. I reached into the left hand side jacket pocket and pulled out the driving licence...I put my hand in the right pocket and pulled out a driving licence
??????
It was at this point my Sister said, "How comes you've got 2 of them?"
I replied, "I don't know"
If I could go back in time to that "incident" I would continue to hold onto BOTH licences to this day to PROVE it!
But being a 10 year old I wasn't interested in supernatural or whatever it was, and continued to look for some money. I put one of the licences back in the jacket pocket, (WHY?) leaving my hand free to reach up to my top pocket. Not finding any money I went back into the pocket to take my 2nd licence but it had gone (again)...??????
I was at the jacket all the time. My Dad's old licence appeared and disappeared within less than a minute. And the fact that my Sister also still remembers it too. Weird!

I've never seen or felt a ghost, but there's definately a 3rd dimension out there.

Don't have nightmares!

[leaf]

thanks everyone!

falkor
i think there once was a house by that part of the park[?]

juwlz

i have heard a few stories about sydenham high too,there was a story about a 'ghost' in the tower,maybe that was a nun?

lemonade
that is very strange,ive had things happen to me like that,i'll put something down and then it just isnt there to be seen two minutes later!
then 5 mins later it is there?!

[thebackster]

There's a woman at work who only ever wears white...maybe she's a ghost?

[Steve Grindlay]

Not a ghost story, exactly, but still intriguing. A book called "Spontaneous Human Combustion", published some 15 years ago, contained the following account:

"Summer 1922, Sydenham, London - 68-year-old widow Mrs Euphemia Johnson returned home from a shopping trip and made a pot of tea. She carried the steaming cup to a table near a double window. Mrs Johnson was later found, fallen from her chair, a pile of calcinated bones within clothes which were not even burnt. The chair showed only a bubbling of the varnish and the rubberized table-cloth was completely untouched.”

I have no idea where the authors of this book got the information, and it’s not been possible to find any more about Euphemia. It doesn’t seem to have been reported in the local papers and there is apparently no death certificate for her (the only Euphemia Johnson whose death was recorded in 1922 was aged 18 and lived in Birkenhead).

Has anyone else has come across this story, or can anyone throw any light on it?

[leaf]

hello steve

i have read of a similar account of spontaneous human combustion in a book of 'mysteries',it involved a woman who lived in lawrie park road,might this be the same story?

i will have to go and search this one out from my book collection and get back to you when ive checked the details.

i seem to remember that only a leg was left unburnt[?]
but i may be confusing this with another account!

[Steve Grindlay]

Hi leaf

It certainly looks possible. I do hope you can track the book down. Can you remember what it was called?

[leaf]

hi steve

i cant think which book this was in

i have looked in all of my books of that sort but have drawn a blank,
i have a feeling that it might have been in one of my mums books,so i will ask her to check,trouble is ive read so many books about the unexplained that im having trouble remembering where i read it!

the year you mention rings a bell too,so maybe we are talking abouit the same case?

[chrisf]

Hello Leaf

...I'm the one who'll probably be "Shot Down" after this:-

BANG BANG I shot u down BANG BANG u hit da ground man!
I have heard better UFO storys.

I had sumit like dat happen 2 me 1ce. Yeah I will share dis 1 wiv u.

I had a peice of paper and it had an orrigenal painting on it. 20 seconds later there was another 1 just like it.














































































it was a PHOTO COPYER u NUTCASE

[leaf]

[Greg Whitehead]

I had sumit like dat happen 2 me 1ce. Yeah I will share dis 1 wiv u.

I had a peice of paper and it had an orrigenal painting on it. 20 seconds later there was another 1 just like it.







Surely, you have to try to be this stupid and illiterate?

I await the witty retort.

[chrisf]

Hello Greg the egg or maybe greghead..........................hhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha lo lololololololol

[lemonade]

Best not to feed this Troll.

[SamC]

hello leaf and everybody else.
my dad told me of a tunnel not too far away from here in penge/norwood. many years ago my dad worked for the railway. there is a tunnel known as the bunny hole. does anybody else know of this place.? it was once used as an escape route for armed robbers who drove their getaway car up to the bridge, got out and ran thru the tunnel and into another car waiting the other side. The filth were stuck at the beginning of the tunnel at the end of chartham se25. zwhen the tunnel was being built it caved in killing a builder. the builder haunts the tunnel. if you walk through it is quite narrow and not very tall but you feel the tunnel is about to cave in on you. it is not a very nice feeling at all. but i still go back for more. i have not ever seen a ghost but i would love to. i would try not to be scared. we should all meet up for haloween sydenham woods haha.

[leaf]

samc

you crazy girl you!
i hadnt heard of this tunnel and i dont much fancy sydenham hill woods on any dark night let alone halloween!

[Greg Whitehead]

For what it's worth SamC I applaud the way in which you consider Westow Hill to be Sydenham and not in a pedantic way.

Unless, of course, you're a two property girl and own in Sydenham and Upper Norwood?

Yes, I do really have too much time on my hands