General Chat

Oh Rollo,

If your relative worked for L&P during WW1 and went to war,you can have his name added to the bank Memorial. :-).Yvonne Fenter is the person who has undertaken the task on behalf of Barclays which was L&P before the take over.

:-)

My Great Grandfather worked at Friern Barnet hospital on the maintenance tea. He was also on their fire team. They had a serious fire there one night, and during the fire fighting was soaked to the skin, as a consequence of which he caught pneumonia and died. He is buried in the parish churchyard.

That's so sad, Bob.

So authentic too.

No wonder you don't like New Southgate.

The Turrets in the 70s and 80s was just a typical London pub but could become a bit rowdy at the weekends as it started becoming a place to go for Fenians, a certain kind of folk music and so on... I sold up and moved on. Beaconsfield Road is not the kind of place you see on TV property shows.

Now as would be London property owners dig down into the usually unread pages of the A-Z and visit unknown tube stations such as Arnos Grove and compute season tickets from Bounds Green even New Southgate is getting its 10 minutes in the sun.

Given that they will be bang next to the HS2 I am a bit surprised that the dear old Turrets has been replaced by flats. They will need very good noise insulation.

If there is a top 10 for haunted places in the UK then Friern Barnet Hosp. must surely be in there. Ask Maggie (former Barnet MP) she will surely know.

Oh yes, my rellie. Here he is, William b. 1810 Pentonville 1871 Bank director, Highgate (not very far from Southgate at least in distance) 1875 died. So he won't make it to be listed :-(

There is a list of 10 most haunted places in the UK, and Friern Barnet Hospital isn't on it! (and no, I'm not 'Maggie' former Barnet MP)
Probably, like many a 'lunatic asylum' or psychiatric hospital, it's reputation went before it, possibly fuelled by memories/stories of Haydock Lodge.
Many an old psychiatric hospital has been turned into flats, and the current residents don't seem notice any ghosts at all.

I worked, for a time (2 years in all), as a 'temp' at St James' Psychiatric Hospital in Portsmouth (built 1879) - which, unlike many, is still a psychiatric Hospital.

The 'spookiest' thing to happen there was when Joe occasionally threw a 'wobbly'. Whoever decided he would be good on the woodworking bench, obviously hadn't seen him at his most distressed.
My 'gut' reaction, when he threw the first hammer, apart from shouting that he was 'throwing a wobbly', was to grab my work colleague (a resident) and drag them, with me, under our printing machine.
Joe found this hilarious, and was 'disarmed' of his second hammer very quickly by the staff, as he was laughing so much. :-0

How do you measure the level of hauntedness?

Isn't it 'orbs' now - particularly the number of 'orbs', which apparently indicates the level of hauntedness. They're visible on digital cameras, they weren't on most old cameras.
If this is the case, my house, the New Forest (particularly that first close up picture of death cap toadstools) and every holiday my family have been on in the past 4 years have been very haunted - or perhaps it's light refraction. :-D

Strange shadows on the camera are also an indication of ghosts (more light refraction?)

Or perhaps it's the amount of mould/dampness in the building......

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/279971/toxic-mold-may-cause-sightings-of-ghosts