The Ghost of E.2 is so well behaved.
The Stokes family are really quite fond of their ghost. For 24 years it has haunted their Bethnal Green home and they would miss it if it moved out. Mr Arthur Stokes and his wife Elizabeth look upon it as a most reasonable ghost. Fifty-four-year-old Mr Stokes, a van driver of Quilter-street, said: “We have no intention of leaving here as we have grown so used to these goings on. It was strange at first when furniture was moved around or lights were switched on when no one was in the room or we heard heavy objects being dragged across the bedroom floor when we knew no one was up there from our family. But our ghost never harms us and seldom comes downstairs, in fact we only have a visit about once every month. The only time it did cause trouble was when I started having a row with my wife because I thought she was tapping against the headboard of our bed and had woken me up. She thought it was me and had also been woken up by it.”
And 27-year-old Shirley Stokes, who has grown up with the ghost said: “It seems to pick on me more than anyone else, but I have got so used to it I don’t take any notice. Once I was in bed when I felt a bump and thought the cat had jumped on to the eiderdown and I put out my hand to brush it off. Then I realised I had locked the cat out before I went to bed, and it did scare me. Another time my sister and I woke up and a candlestick was floating round the room. We screamed and our parents ran in to us, but it has never happened since.”
Mr Stokes had the last word: “Older residents around here say this was once a very unhappy house so possibly that explains it. But I have not bothered about getting the experts in to see what is wrong. In fact we are now so used to being haunted we would miss it if it stopped.”
Evening News (London), 23rd November 1964.