A Haunted House in Lambeth.
From a Correspondent.
Since Saturday last the inhabitants of Park-street, Lock’s Fields, and its surrounding neighbourhood, have been kept in a state of excitement, produced by a circumstance of somewhat unusual character. The house, No. 9, in that (Park) street, was occupied by two families, the one being Newell, the waterman, and for some time the champion of the Thames, with his wife and five children, and the other Simms, a lighterman, his wife, and five children, and up to Saturday last nothing occurred to give either family the slightest annoyance.
On the afternoon of that day, however, a noise was heard in the upper part of the house, and on going to ascertain the cause it was found that a square of glass was smashed in one of the bedroom windows. The act at the time was attributed to some mischievous person, who had by accident or design flung a stone at the window and broken the glass; but as the evening approached other squares of glass were smashed, and though a constant look-out was kept up, the supposed parties to the mischievous proceedings could not be discovered or detected.
The work of demolition still went on to such an extent that the inhabitants became dreadfully alarmed, and to add to their consternation, noises, such as thumping at the inner walls, were frequently heard, while the cause could not be discovered.
The report that the house was haunted soon gained circulation, and on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday a crowd of some hundreds of persons were assembled about it, and the aid of the police was called in. On Tuesday, Mr Superintendent Lund, accompanied by Sergeant Quinnear, visited the house, and found the inmates in the greatest state of dread and alarm. Both Newell and Sims assured the officers that they had tried every possible means to discover the cause of the noises and the breaking of glass, but they were unable to do so, and so alarmed were they that they had taken another house, and begged of the superintendent that he would allow a constable or two to remain in the house until they removed.
They said that while at their meals the very table around which they sat was struck repeatedly at the bottom with such force as to disturb and displace every article on it.
Newell stated an instance of the unaccountable proceedings which he had witnessed with his own eyes, and that was his cap, which he had just placed on the centre of the table, rolling off with a force which carried it to the other end of the room.
It was not a little singular that, even while the officers were in Newell’s room, some clothes which were tied up in a bundle, and placed in a basket on some drawers, tumbled out on the floor, and the basket followed.
The two constables placed in the house declare they had heard noises for which they could not account. The inmates all left the house at an early hour on Thursday morning, and removed to another house in the neighbourhood, and the house is at present locked up. The circumstance has given rise to much gossip in the neighbourhood.
Morning Advertiser, 2nd July 1853.