Craven Street ghosts

Is The College of Optometrists' head office haunted? Some visitors claim to have seen more than just the spectacles and lenses on display.

George and Mary

On 13 March 2006 a decorator at the College claimed to have spotted a man in a blue coat and a tricorn hat in the corner of the museum's Sutcliffe Room. 

The figure apparently spoke to him asking 'Where's Mary? I can't find Mary'. He sensed this man's name was George. A day later he spotted the same figure, this time leaning against the marble fireplace in the Giles Room (just through the wall from the previous spot). George was still looking for Mary.
 
Later research revealed that a George McCummins and a Mary Berringer had been leaseholders of a block on the east side of Craven Street in 1754. Could there be a connection?

Ghost hunters

On Friday 13 October a more scientific paranormal investigation took place at the College by the more experienced ghost hunting team at Southern Paranormal. 

They didn't find George or Mary, but they did find Anna, Hannah, Joseph and Will (known as Bert). There was one alleged sighting of a grey man in the sub basement and some people felt they had been 'touched' in the dark.

The team of six was led by Kerry Price, a librarian and also included a disc jockey, a website designer, a caretaker, a medium and a minister from a Spiritualist 'church'.  

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The team carried out temperature, EMF (Electro magnetic field) and EVP (electronic voice phenomena) tests. They established vigil areas and filmed events on a camcorder. Some doors were sealed and motion sensors placed across their thresholds.

They concluded that the Giles Room had once been a storeroom for furniture and may have also been a school room at one point. A boy may have starved to death here. He must have been small because the unusual temperature readings only picked up at a height of about four feet. Val, the medium, was 'given' the name of William Connor whom others called Bert. She said 'I felt as though a man was watching me, he was a scruffy man who didn’t smell all that pleasant. It was the smell of unwashed feet. I got the name of William but he was nicknamed Bert and also the name of Connor. I could see candles burning very low'. All agreed on the 'oppressive' nature of this room. Val concluded by telling Neil the curator 'All I can say is that we shouldn't be here'.
 
In the main display area, the Sutcliffe Room, Val picked up on the name of Anna or Hannah, a girl not born in London but from the country, and could 'see' bodies and blood. She began questioning this spirit out loud: Were you hurt here? Did you die here? Were you strangled? Did you know Joseph? Did you love Joseph? Did Joe kill you? Were you smothered? With each question the buzzing of the EMF meter went ballistic. Val believed that what she was picking up on was whatever had been on this site before the current building. She envisaged a bedroom with a four-poster bed and believed that Anna had enticed men into this place and that Joe had then done his dirty work. She felt that there were 'a lot of knives involved' and that Anna had later been hanged or knifed to death, taking the blame for all Joe's misdeeds. 

The other medium, Keith, believed that Hannah died in this room, possibly in childbirth. He 'saw' two women here, an old lady and a young woman of about 18 years who was Hannah. He felt the hairs on his arms rising as he walked through to the other room and immediately felt dizzy. 

Research has shown that in Craven Street's earlier incarnation as Spur Alley (pre-1730), it was infamous for sheltering many people who were on the wrong side of the law. 

Kerry, the librarian, felt someone touch her neck. Her teammate, Ken, who had arrived with a painful abscess in his mouth, said the pain had suddenly gone but that it returned when he left the building. At one point Kerry felt a pain in her stomach and jaw.

As Ken was filming he felt someone brush against his left arm although he was standing on his own. Ghost hunter, Jim, saw a figure of a grey-haired man which he thought, at first, was Ken. Keith picked up the name 'Baker'. Neil showed him a picture of former BOA President Bill Barker in the museum. He thought it might have been the man he saw. 

More sightings

A 'sighting' of the little boy took place in the Sutcliffe Room when a visitor and practising dispensing optician reported her encounter on 15 November 2017. Despite there being other people in the room at the time, she was the only person who had the sighting. 

Book your own ghostly visit

Visit the College's museum, located on the lower ground floor of Craven Street, for a guided tour and the chance to experience your own ghostly encounter!