The London
Underground - Part Three.
Bank Station.
Nestling in the heart of London's
financial district is one of the oldest stations on the underground network,
Bank Station.
The ticket hall of Bank Station is built under the site of
old burial grounds belonging to St Mary Woolnoth Church, this site has been used as a site of worship for approximately 2000
years and traces of Roman and Pagan religious buildings have been found under the foundations of the present church.
In the late 19th and early 20th century the church underwent
some major changes and was marked for demolition on a number of different occasions but managed to be saved this
fate every time.
Between 1897 and 1900 the City and South London Railway
built Bank Station beneath the church, they were in fact given permission to demolish the church but there was so much
public outcry about this that the decision was made to let the church building remain. However the crypt was sold to the railway
company and the bones were removed to be reburied in Ilford. The subsoil from this area was used in the building of the
station.
On January 11th, 1941,
during the blitz, over 50 people were killed and nearly 70 people were injured
when the Central Line ticket hall took a direct hit from a German bomb. The resulting
crater measured 120ft long and 100ft wide and it had to be covered with a bailey-bridge for traffic to pass over. The station was put
out of action for 2 months.
In 1982 Andy Harkness an underground employee of 35 years was working the night shift at Bank,
the last train had left the station and it was Andy's job to ensure that there was
nobody left in the station and that it was safe to lock up. Part of this routine is to check that the 4 lifts were empty and clean,
Andy checked all lifts including lift one that had not been operating that day, his inspection of lift one showed nothing, it was
empty and clean he closed the doors and started to walk away, as he got about 6 feet away
from the lift he heard a "Knock, Knock, Knock" coming from the other side of lift 1 door. Andy knew there was nobody in the lift as he had just checked it and the lift
had been shut down, there was no wind around the station to rattle the doors either, Andy was alone on the station he was the only person
who was doing the rounds on this station. Andy thought that he must have been hearing things so he decided to carry on with his
inspection of the station.
His next stop for inspection was the switch room, he says
that he opened the door to the switch room and wedged it open, he then turned off the lights in this room just leaving the emergency
lights on, he then left the switch room leaving the its door wedged open as was
the customer at night, as he walked away the door to the switch room
slammed shut with an almighty force making Andy jump to afraid to even look
back.
Andy made a hasty retreat from Bank Station and never worked
on that side of the station again.
Another report of ghostly sightings happened at Bank, an
employee was working the late shift and was monitoring the CCTV cameras around the station, he noticed on one of them that there was an old
lady standing in a corridor , she was not moving around and looked as if she
were confused or lost, he said to his colleagues in the control
room that he would go and investigate.
He made his way to the corridor where he had seen the lady
standing and as he rounded the corner he could see her still standing there, he
made his way over to where she was standing and asked the lady what
she was doing there and if he could help her in any way, she turned to look at
him but then just turned away and started to walk away from him,
puzzled he watched her for a short while but then decided to go after her, he
made his way around the corner of the corridor but the lady was nowhere
to be seen, there was no where for her to have gone as there were no doors or
corridors off this one, and he doubted she could have run to the end
of the corridor in the time it took him to go after her.
Although not directly associated with Bank Station but more
the building the station is named after and its location is a well known
haunting known as the Old Lady of
Threadneedle Street, Bank Station is located at the end of this street.
The story goes that in 1811 a clerk at the bank of England
named Philip Whitehead was accused of forgery, he was arrested and tried and
found guilty, in early1812 he was duly hung for the crime. Philip had a
sister named Sarah, they were very close and friends of Sarah decided to keep
the news of Philips crime and death from her as long as they possible
could.
They removed Sarah to a house in Wine Office
Court off Fleet Street. However it was inevitable that Sarah would get concerned about the lack of
visits and correspondence from her brother and one day took it upon herself to
visit the bank to visit her brother, a clerk on duty at the counter told
Sarah the whole story of Philips crime
and subsequent death.
Sarah was devastated by the news she had heard, for a short
while she locked herself away, slowly going crazy with grief, she took to
wearing all black, she wore a black dress and a black cape with a hood and a black
veil , this attire made her look like a nun and then she started turning up at
the bank everyday asking the whereabouts of her brother.
The grief had turned the
poor woman's mind, it had driven her crazy, she thought her beloved brother was
still alive and still working at the bank. Staff at the bank started to refer to her as
the Black Nun.
Upon her death she was buried at St Christopher le Stocks
church which was located to the rear of the bank, (the bank has now been
extended over this land).
Over the years there have been many people who have reported
whilst making way along Threadneedle Street
encountering an old lady dressed all in black and resembling a nun, who has walked up to them and with downcast eyes has
asked them "have you seen my brother", before disappearing in front
of them.
Could it be that Sarah is the old lady that was seen in the
corridor of the underground?
Not so much a ghost story but an interesting tale non the less. A bank clerk who died in 1798 was worried that his body would be stolen
by body snatchers (who supplied London’s surgeons with corpses for
dissections) as at 6ft 7½inches tall he was considered a giant. The
bank’s directors agreed to allow him to be buried in the bank garden,
and the coffin was discovered during the rebuilding works in 1933 and
safely removed to Nunhead cemetery.
