Ghost hunting at the Fortune Theatre

I had something forwarded to me today that piqued my interest. As you probably know, I do my theatre stuff, as well as occasionally hosting ghost crawls (pub crawls with ghost stories). Therefore, having something sent to me by a theatre marketing bod about ghosts in a west end theatre = brilliant. However, I did notice that the Fortune is also home to the Woman in Black, the original west end horror play.

Do I smell a clever marketing ploy?

Ok, I'll drop the façade. I know this is a bit of a viral for Woman in Black, but at the same time it's quite well done. Looking back through the blog, they've done their homework creating Dr Simon Hill (unless he is a real person?), with posts dating back almost a year all around orbs, photographing ghosts and haunted parts of London. However, I'm hoping they don't just stop there. Why not go the whole hog and make Dr Simon real? Organise some ghost walks around Covent Garden with a real live doctor in parapsychology (who's going to check the credentials) that ends up at the Fortune where something real happens!? Then give them some passes to cheap tickets for the show for some more spooky theatrical goodness.

However, in saying that, I love the fact that they've already gone to this kind of effort and it's something more marketing departments should be looking at. What do you guys think?

Ghost hunting take two

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I'm attempting another go at my ill fated #ldnghoststories tomorrow night. This time, however, I have secured a small group of people from all walks of life to join in. All I had to promise them was a plethora of pubs along the route. I have delivered. However, there is a proviso that the pubs are haunted. This means revisiting bleeding heart yard, but I don't mind. It's an interesting concept that I've been kicking around for the past month or so. These little ghost walks (I now carry around my book, just in case I chance into a chartered area) are teaching me a fair bit about London's history, albeit the slightly stranger, innacurate version. It has become a bit of an obsession too. I've purchased a ghost radar app for the iPhone (you wouldn't believe how many trains are haunted. Same goes for my work's relatively new office block and a brand new cinema!). I've also downloaded some other supplies, such as dark room (to take photos in the dark), night vision (for night vision...) and spooky ghost noise (for when imagination isn't enough). Sure, the iPhone can't take photos in the dark, doesn't have the technology for night vision or have ghost living inside it, but that's completely beside the point. It's really the same way that people download Facebook or a Twitter client to pretend they have friends. I download these to pretend I'm a ghost hunter. The ghost hunting starts at 7pm GMT on Tuesday 23rd. Follow our live updates by searching #ldnghoststories or wait for the full blog posts and photo evidence of my ghost hunting group's soiled undergarments. If you're interested in coming along on the next #ldnghoststories then hit me up on Twitter.

I ain't afraid of no ghost

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I know what you're thinking. 'Oh no, not another post about ghosts. This blog is nonsense'. That is what I assume you're thinking, anyway. This isn't so much a blog post about ghosts, as it is me deciding how I'm going to spend my afternoon tomorrow. I have some time to kill before going to see a show tomorrow night and decided to go ghost hunting. On a weekday. At 5pm. In the middle of the city. This all came about, in part, because of the Dover Castle 'episode'. Both I and my partner in crime were holding court at her parent's place describing how we came face to face with death and narrowly missed being seized upon by a wraith of some description. That is, we showed them our blurry photo that could well be a smudge on the lens. They were suitably impressed, as one would be, and the next time we saw them they produced this book:
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They, in short, wanted to subject us to more terror. Now, a little bit of back story here that I didn't add to the previous ghost related post... I am a little courage challenged when it comes to this area. Sure, these days I put on the face of male bravado in the face of supernatural. However, as we speak I am currently sitting in an empty house and because it is night I am constantly checking over my shoulder, in mirrors and windows convinced I'm about to see something that will terrify the bejeesus out of me. When I was 10 I distinctly remember hiding under the covers because I could hear the theme song to the X Files. There are episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark that scared the hell out of me. At 18. I put this down to having an older sister who liked the scare the hell out of me by telling me stories about local ghosts, including that of one of her friends who tragically died when she was 16. What did my sister do a year later? Attempt contact using a ouiji board. Not cool, I tell you. Not cool. I have been on one ghost tour, which was more of a history lesson about the Rocks in Sydney. The man who was leading us looked like Bill Bryson, but with a cape. In summary, it wasn't very scary at all. So to cure myself of boredom and scare myself a little, I am going to start doing my own self guided ghost tours around London. You can follow them on twitter if you want by following me, or searching for #ldnghoststories. Alternatively I shall be posting wrapups of each one on here. To begin with, I am doing half a tour. I can't fit in a full tour before I go to the theatre, so I shall be walking around bits of Clerkenwell visiting the local paranormal attractions. Yes, I shall be seeing them all! The Clerkenwell House of Detention, famous for being one of the most haunted places in London, Bleeding Heart Yard, where a socialite was found torn limb from limb with her heart still pumping blood on to the cobblestones, and my favourite, Scratching Fanny of Cock Lane. Yes, you heard right. If you're interested in coming along with me then let me know via twitter. It should be most informative. I shall be reading aloud from my book whether people are there or not. I shall report in full soon... Hopefully...

I saw a ghost!

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Ok, so first off I've abandoned the tumblr blog. One, I like Wordpress better. Two, I gots a new URL. I'm hoping you've noticed this, considering you are on a completely different site. Secondly, I've also abandoned hope of catching everyone up to where I am now. Therefore, posts will be far more recent, which means I can stop making up the things I've been doing. I will cover the things I have done, but shall do so over time. This is because I have seen a ghost.* A real ghost. Well... kind of. Between Christmas and New Year, Emily and I wanted to test out the new English Heritage membership (of which I am now also a proud owner). We packed up our thermals and headed on a day trip to Dover Castle. However, the day we chose was a rather unimpressive day. That is, very cold and very very wet. Determined not to let the bad weather phase me, I cheerily sang my new song all the way to Dover Castle. My new song consists  of the lyrics 'Dover Castle', repeated, to the tune of Beethoven's 'Hallelujah'. Emily thoroughly enjoyed the car ride and I'm almost certain that the ten or so car accidents we saw along the way weren't a result of my new song. Dover Castle is situated on a cliff in Dover. This seems simple enough, but as nothing else is named after its location, I thought it needed pointing out (Buckingham Palace is not in Buckingham. Leeds Castle is not in Leeds. Ham House is not made of Ham.). Dover Castle is, in fact, situated on the famous White Cliffs of Dover. What the tourist pamphlets don't tell you is that Dover is actually a rather miserable town. It is full of cheap hotels, seedy looking drinking establishments and all sorts of unsavoury people. Dover Castle, on the other hand, is quite nice. It's big. It's old. It's a castle. There is also a network of tunnels beneath the castle that have been used for various wars, including the secret wartime tunnels of World War II. Unfortunately, we were informed at the gate that these tunnels were closed today. Also, there was no train to take us to the castle. Also, there was no hot food. Also, they had just had an outbreak of the plague.** We meandered around the keep for a while, marveling at the IKEA children's furniture (apparently Henry II liked flat-pack). We watched people reenact things and saw some holograms talking. Your typical castle, really. After having a look around the keep, we settled in the cafe (with no hot food) and discussed what else there was to see. On the map we noticed that whilst the Wartime Tunnels were closed, the Medieval Tunnels at the back of the castle were still open to visitors. This is where I start to show you pictures...
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These are the tunnels. This was at midday. These tunnels were dark. Also, considering it was pelting down with rain and a few days after Christmas, not many tourists were actually around. In summation, these tunnels were creepy. Also, a lot of the tunnels weren't lit. At all. We ended up using the camera flash to see if there actually was a tunnel ahead. This produced some interesting results... [caption id="attachment_30" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Something mighty creepy"]
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[/caption] [caption id="attachment_31" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The same picture taken a few seconds later"]
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[/caption] Now, I thought the effect was quite cool and it was only when I looked at it days later that I realised it looks mighty creepy. However, thanks to google I found this picture:
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That is, a picture taken from around the same place with a similar figure in it. I shall let you decide what you will, but it promptly made my mind up as to whether I would be going back to Dover for one of their nighttime Ghost Tours. I just don't particularly like being spooked. Stupidly, we continued on deeper into the tunnels. Em was feeling more and more uneasy. We decided to turn around and leave after we came to a completely unlit tunnel that Em didn't like at all. I took a photo with the flash and here is the result: [caption id="attachment_33" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="orbs and all"]
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[/caption] We seemed to cut our tour of the castle there. We will go back and I'll make sure I bring Bill Murray with me this time. He ain't afraid of no ghosts. *not the actual reason, but works for dramatic effect. ** slight exaggeration, but when you have been driving for two and a half hours this all seems a bit dire.