Covent Garden Station
Opened on the 11th April 1907 Covent Garden Station is on the Piccadilly line
between Leicester Square and Holborn, the station itself was built on the corner
of Long Acre and James street and is now classified as a grade II listed building.
This station has several reports of the same ghost being seen by different people over the years, however the last know reported sighting was in 1972. Has this spirit finally been put to rest or are we just to busy in our own life and to familiar with our surroundings to notice he is still around?
In 1972 a young lift operator at the station named Christopher Joseph Clifford was
closing up the station for the night after the last train had passed through,he had ensured
the lift was empty and was doing his usual rounds to ensure everything was locked up.
Christopher Clifford went down into the station and a very short while later
was conscious of someone standing behind him, he
turned around and was confronted by a gentleman who was about six foot 3 inches
tall and was wear a very smart old fashioned
suit with a waistcoat and tall hat. Clifford thought he had locked one of the
passengers in the station so apologised to the gentleman and explained he would
have to walk up all the stairs to the exit as the lift was shut down for the night,
Clifford turned around to pick up his keys to let the passenger out of the station,
when he turned around again the gentleman was no longer there, the young lift
operator went to the platform to see if the gentleman had gone to look for a train
but there was no sign of the passenger there, next
he went to the exits to see if he had made his way there in anticipation of Clifford
opening the door to let him out but again there was no sign of the tall gentleman.
Clifford search everywhere he could think someone may be able to go but was not
able to find the man at all.
Chris Clifford reported the sighting to colleagues and was shown an old photograph
of a man and asked if the man he spoke to in the station looked like the man in the
picture, the lift operator replied that it was the spiting image of the man who he had
seen down in the station after he had locked up, he ask who the man was and was
shocked by the reply.
The man Clifford had identified as the man he spoke to in the locked up station was a
well know actor by the name of William Terriss, what shocked him the most was the
news that Terriss had been murdered on the 16th December 1897.
William Terriss was stabbed to death entering the Adelphi Theatre on the Strand,Terriss stopped at the door and reached into his pocket for the keys to unlock the door to the theatre, he was approached by a man who proceeded to plunge a knife into actors back, the actor turned around to face his assailant and was then stabbed a second time, this time in his side, Terriss shocked and in pain spun around and was stabbed a third time, this time again his back. William Terriss died on the spot he had been attacked.
The man who murdered William Terriss was arrested on the spot and was named as actor Richard Archer Prince.
There is a little confusion as to why William Terriss is haunting the Covent Garden tubestation as he was murdered at the Adelphi Theatre which is a fair walk from the now entrance to the tube station, also
Terriss was murdered 10 years before the station was opened, one thought is that the station
was built on an old bakery which William Terriss used to frequent often, is the spirit of
Terriss returning to this location in search of the bakery he once loved while he was alive?
William Terriss is also reported to haunt the theatre where he was stabbed.
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