Three met a violent poltergeist in a flat off the Fulham Road.
The ghost of the “Bloody Bishop,” which is said to haunt the precincts of Fulham Palace, has come to light again. In “A Weekend Thought” recently, TFS recalled how Edmund Bonner, a former Bishop of London, who shared the nickname “Bloody” with his sovereign the late Queen Mary Tudor, was said to wander, long after his death, in the nearby park. And TFS speculated how interesting it might be to meet him in Stevenage Road or Greswell Street. His comments bring to mind the well-documented story of the Fulham workmen who met, not the Bishop in the park, but a poltergeist in a flat off Fulham Road.
It happened just 40 years ago, in 1927, when the three men moved in to decorate the flat after the death of a tenant whose possessions were still there. At first, there were just a few odd noises. But old houses do give rise to creaking and cracking noises, and the men took little notice. But then stranger things began to happen. A cup was seen to wobble, apparently of its own accord, across a bedroom floor. A milk tin rose into the air and settled on the mantelpiece. And in the front room matches vanished.
However, the men convinced themselves there must be perfectly natural explanations for the events. When three candles appeared from nowhere, and a candlestick which disappeared from a table was later found in the kitchen, they consoled themselves with thoughts that one of their mates must have moved the things while their backs were turned. Throughout the morning, the unexplained happenings continued, articles being mysteriously transported from one part of the house to another. But far worse was to come.
The foreman, who later told the story, and whose evidence was corroborated by the others, seems to have been a level-headed type, not the kind of man to run at the first inexplicable creaking. Yet the experiences that were to follow thoroughly unnerved him. The men went to lunch, locking every door in the house. When they returned, the doors had been unlocked and paste-trestles were jammed against the front door – as if in an attempt to keep out intruders. As the afternoon wore on and darkness fell, the restless spirit became more violent – smashing a glass tumbler on the floor. A terrifying climax came as the men prepared to leave.
Here are the foreman’s own words: “There was no lighting in the flat, and we carried candles as we walked into the passage. Suddenly, the last workman cried out, ‘He’s vanished.’ I turned round and saw that his mate had indeed disappeared from our midst. We stared at each other in amazement and fear… until, a few minutes later, we heard a thud in the bedroom and, rushing in, saw the missing man huddled on the floor. He was unconscious and appeared as though he had been flung about with great force.”
They brought the man round, but he could remember nothing of what had happened. A few weeks later, the house was sold and the late tenant’s effects were moved. The uneasy spirit seems to have departed with them, for no further disturbances were reported.
Fulham Chronicle, 9th June 1967.