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.
the most remarkable coincidence happened in sept 1977 the exact date and location of the poltergeist in green street . but our story began in st marks road Enfield . because of our ages at the time we were not aware of the big story regarding the poltergeist in green street Enfield ? me and my brothers were still going to school . but what happened in our flat makes the story of green street look so small . there was only one ever similar recorded case like ours on the other side of the world . unexplainable blood which suddenly appeared on the stair case running down the stairs forming a puddle . the moving of a picture which was nailed to the wall and was brought into the bedroom next to the bed . the voices of a man . a train set which was lifted into mid-air in front of our eyes . . the flat was like fort Knox nothing could come through the steel door leading up to the flat we had no animals . yet around midnight wanting to go to the toilet we noticed large puddles of blood ? in most ghost accidents you hear something or see something ? then its gone ? but here we had real blood with no explanation where it could of come from ? large amounts ? the second incident to happen a few days later a picture was nailed into the wall above the stairs . then the following evening while my mother was asleep she became aware of a man standing next to her bed . she recalled that the man was in his 40s wearing a blue shirt . she could not move her body only here eyes . and the only words this man spoke was to say GET THIS THING OUT OF MY HOUSE . he had left the picture next to her bed . there are more incidents which happened after which led us to leave this flat and move into a hotel until we found another property . this all happened in august September 1977 . then in the year 2015 I decided to research if anything had happened to the flat prior to us moving in there in 1977 . because people kept saying someone must of died in there or something bad happened in the flat ? I drove down to Enfield library and researched who had lived there in the years prior to moving in there ? I was told to go to the deaths and marriages office opposite the library . I spoke to a woman there who asked me to explain the circumstances of what had happened ? she then proceeded to look up the address for anyone who might of died at that address ? a few minutes later she told me that yes a person had died in the flat in April 1950 ? she also told me if I wanted the death certificate ? from there I established the name of the person and how he died .keeping in mind the man died in 1950 and we moved into the flat in 1977 . his spirit was still in the flat some 27 years after he had died . now whether your a believer or not ? this man s body was buried in the ground . yet his spirit was still in the flat some 27 years later . when you speak to people about death . most say that once you die there is nothing after death ? then I would ask them to try and explain how a man who had died and was buried into the ground . would suddenly appear in the flat where he had died ? and when people argue the point about ghost just being a figure of the imagination ? how will they be able to explain that this man who died had the ability to think as well ? he took the picture off the stair case and brought it into my mothers room and spoke ? scientists do not believe in ghosts. because there is no physical evidence to go on ? but what happened here is real and will never leave us . there is no explanation for the large amounts of real blood left on the stair case . there are lots of questions that need to be looked at ? why is it a spirit is left behind ? well in this case the death certificate mentioned that this man died of a brain hermitage . did something happen to him ? was he hit over the head ? I believe he was lost in time ? in other words he still believed he was living there . maybe confused as to all the people that was in his flat ? and to add more to this mystery . in 2015 we found a picture of my mother and two brothers standing by the door entrance of out flat . the picture was forwarded to me through face book when i was looking at the picture . I noticed something on top of my mothers head ? as i zoomed in closer . I could not believe what I was seeing ? there in front of me clear for anyone to see was a man in his mid 40s wearing glasses . there will be more added to this story as it does not stop there . the events which followed in 2017 will leave you speechless . will add more in the next few weeks