General Chat

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

How do you measure the level of hauntedness?

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

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 :-(

So authentic too.

That's so sad, Bob.

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.

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.

:-)

It is quite complicated isn't it?

You have to consider the position George Coode held I think.

Bit of a 'dive' then, Bob? :-(

Sharron,
I've read what I can, but Mott seems the villain to me - a greedy, slimey 'out for all he can get' lower middle class 'on his way up' toad.
Or have I totally misjudged him :-S

Despite being a listed building the Turrets has been demolished and a block of flats is being built on the site. However "The Banker's Draft" across the road is doing fine. Tha Banker's Draft was formerly a branch of the London & Provincial Bank. One of my lot was a director of L&P though based in Finsbury.

I had many a merry evening at the Turrets sad to see it gone.

I am glad the Turretts is shut. Last time I was in there I was beaten senseless by a mindless group of blokes, one of them hit me so hard over the head with a bottle that it smashed leaving me bleading and unconscious. I still have the scars.

:-D :-D :-D

It was George Coode. Crafty old git!

Was it Coode, or was it Mott??? :-D

George Coode.

Poor law administration was a prime source of bumbledum and petty corrution going all the way back to Speenhamland. In that it merely reflected how the country as a whole was run. The period was of course most famousy described by Dickens in "Oliver Twist".

By the end of the C19 the UK was vastly improved in both wealth and health. The work house system was coming to an end.

There is nothing much in the history of the Marylebone Workhouse at variance with the history of the Poor Law in London (Middlesex) parishes as a whole. Who was this guy apparantly more venal than the average ? Z.P. ?

These events happened long long ago, I was a landlord in the area 1970s though I suppose that is long ago too now. In any event none of my tenants were "on the social" or escaped renegades from Colney Hatch.

As it happens, neither was anybody else at Marylebone workhouse, whether they had the good fortune to grace your tree or not, but the man in question was.

no of course it wasn't, by my time good 'ol N11 was usually known as New Southgate though of course the looming towers of Friern Barnet hosp. could not be missed. I don't think the phrase "Colney Hatch" has the same resonance with the denizens of Barnet, Edmonton and Hampstead that was once the case ;-)

Much has changed. The hosp. is no more and my fav pub in the area "The Turrets" is closed and derelict.

As it happens I have a guy in my tree who was on the board of guardians of Marylebone Workhouse. He was def. not on the make and did all within his power to improve conditions for people.

Oh Rollo you must have a connection to Joyous.......Nusre Waddingham is in her family tree. :-)