The vehicle in question is the ghostly apparition of an old London double decker bus which was first reported in 1934.
On that occasion, at 1.15 am, a motorist crashed his car into a wall after being startled by the bus, which appeared from nowhere and vanished just as quickly.
There are two versions of this story: the first claims the driver was killed after his car burst into flames, and that an eye-witness reported seeing the bus. In the second, the driver survived, and it was he who blamed the speeding phantom (which no doubt gave his insurance company a considerable headache).
Since 1934 there have been numerous sightings of the ghost bus, all of which share three things in common: they always occur at 1.15am, it is a Number 7 (a route which runs between Acton and Oxford Circus) and, although the lights are blazing, no driver or passengers are visible.
The last recorded sighting was in 1990.
I worked in the Ambulance Station in St Mark’s Road near Cambridge Gardens from 1980 until 2001. I never once saw the ghost of that Number 7. 🙂
The Enfield Haunting remains one of the most convincing ever investigated. The mini-series about it starring Tim Spall was very good, and worth watching.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Enfield_Haunting
My wife is a firm believer in spiritual things (I am not) and has been with a group to Hampton Court Palace to try to see the ghosts believed to haunt it.
Best wishes, Pete.
I bet you looked out for it though Pete? 😉 The Enfield Haunting is intriguing, I’ve not yet managed to see the mini-series but am keen to. Stay well.
In the late 60s both my brother and I worked at a tobacconists warehouse in N1, New North Road very near the Vestry St junction. One day I was pulling a loaded trolley when I felt a sharp tap on my shoulder. As I thought it was my bruv mucking about I didn’t react. When I got to the line of shelves I wanted a second or so later, I looked around. No body was near. My bruv and other workmates were all around the packing table which was a good 50 or 60 feet away and could not gave run there in the short time. Everyone denied being near me and touching. Some time after that, I remember looking at the empty wall some distance away and thought I saw a table around which were cavaliers eating and drinking, making merry. It was a newly built warehouse so wonder what occupied the location before. Looking at Street View, this has been redeveloped and not as I remember. I recall between the warehouse was an alley next to a pub if anyone knows the area at that time.
Wow! Thanks for sharing Alan. I believe the approximate area you describe was one occupied by a large farm named Wenlock’s Barn (which also leant its name to the parish)…
Many thanks for the info. Hard to believe that area was farmland when comparing it to how London is now.
I saw my bruv this weekend and he told me of more experiences in New North Road and the previous location which covered more years than I had.
The building had a ground level garage for the vans, with security shutters. A young lad one evening was down there getting parcels ready for the vans the next day when the shutters very loudly rattled and thought he saw something near the shutters. He was quite alone down there and promptly ran up to the next floor to give notice and left there and then.
The 1st floor was confectionery where I had my experiences. One day they were all having their lunch around the table when a customer collecting his goods, looked sharply away and looked troubled. Jim asked what it was and the customer replied he thought he saw somebody walk between some shelves and disappeared. There was no one else on that floor. Another, the manager opening up one morning felt a sharp tap on his shoulder just as I did. But there was nobody around him at that time, being too soon for the staff. A young girl picked up a 12 bottle crate of Lucozade, screamed and dropped the bottles. She was scared as she saw “something” and she left as did not want to carry on working there either. One day Taffy, an ex nurse who was an old Capstan smoker, so you can tell what a strong woman she was, was at the packing table. She let out a gasp and huddled herself. When asked what the trouble was she said she just saw something out of the corner of her eye. Whatever it was really scared her as she went white, was cold as ice and you could see her goose bumps. The first floor had a conveyer to the 2nd floor which was the tobacco area and had a very secure shutter at the top to prevent access, being a secure area. One day the shutter rattled very loudly, 3 or 4 rushed to see what caused it. Nothing could be seen but Les commented, “hey, have you noticed how cold it is here?”
That was not all. The firm originally was located in Pentonville Road N1, a very short walk from the Angel. Confectionery was located on the left of an alley leading to the firms van parking area. On the right of the alley was the tobacco part. This site was the old omnibus station and was built over what was the bus horse stables. The confectionery was a hotel which catered for travellers of the coaches/omnibus, after which it was a builders merchant. Here my bruv one busy Christmas time was on the next floor, quite alone packing the orders. The others were on the lower floor doing their orders. Where my bruv was it had an old iron flat roof. He heard someone running heavily across the roof. There was no way to get on the roof but it did have another floor alongside it which were the offices. Bruv ran downstairs to tell the others what happened as it quite put the wind up him. They all ran to the offices to look out of the windows but could not see anything or anyone. They were heavy footsteps, far too loud to be a cat.
Sorry it has gone on but perhaps you can shed some light on the first location as perhaps something travelled from the first to the second location?
Hi Alan, thanks for sharing; incredible tales! Not sure I can help much more with the location unfortunately; hopefully someone reading the comments may know more? Stay well.