Chelsea’s Ghost.
Three people see spectre that has banged on doors for years.
Steps on stairs.
Chelsea is still the haunt of at least one alarming ghost. This apparition has lately been terrifying the occupants and visitors of an old house in Whitehead’s-grove, which was formerly the Brompton County Court. “Until I saw this apparition,” said Mrs George Cran, the well-known writer, and the present occupier of the house, to The Daily Mirror yesterday, “I was a sceptic and did not believe in ghosts, but now -. But let me tell you all about it. Ever since we came here, four years ago, my husband and our friends have repeatedly heard the front door bang, always between the hours of eleven p.m. and two a.m. We could never account for the noise, and it worried us a good deal. A little time ago I had a friend staying with me who suddenly fell ill. We put her up in a spare bedroom. Several days afterwards she was extremely alarmed, and said she had seen a ghost. No notice was taken of her statement then, as we thought it a delusion brought on by overwrought nerves.
“But I was soon to see the ghost myself. I was being sculptured for the Academy by Mr Fergus Hurd-Wood shortly before Easter. It was late at night, and he had left me for a few minutes, when suddenly I heard a door opened and closed with a bang downstairs. I ran to the banisters and looked over. I could see nothing, but I heard steps coming up the stairs, and, frightened beyond measure, I rushed into my bedroom and waited there. Suddenly I was conscious of another being in the room. It was horrible. Then, high up by the ceiling, supported on a black cloudy outline, I saw a small head and shoulders. The head seemed to be looking down at me. Horrified, I called out loudly, and Mr Hurd-Wood came running in. As he was speaking I saw him turn round suddenly and hit out furiously with his fist. Without waiting any longer we both bolted from the room.”
“I really saw a figure,” said Mr Fergus Hurd-Wood. “First I heard a noise as if made by somebody entering the house. Then I heard someone walking along the passage as if in a great hurry. These noises were getting on my nerves, so I cried out, ‘If you really want to come in come in quietly and don’t make such a noise!’ I was then appalled to see a black, cloudy-looking figure and a face and pair of shoulders about a foot away from me. The face and neck had the appearance of hanging from the ceiling.”
Daily Mirror, 6th May 1913.