While the Ghost of Christmas Past is a fictional creation of Charles Dickens, a West London Tube station claims its own very real festive apparition. Each Christmas, the platforms of Ickenham Station are said to be visited by the spectral figure of a woman wearing a distinctive red scarf.
The Legend of Ickenham's Festive Spectre
This chilling annual haunting is tied to a tragic event at the station. According to local legend, the ghost is the spirit of a woman who fell and was electrocuted on the tracks. Her apparition is repeatedly seen on the platform near the site of the alleged accident, where she is said to wave at passengers before vanishing into thin air.
Ickenham Station is a relatively quiet stop on the Metropolitan and Piccadilly Lines. It recorded approximately 850,000 passenger entries and exits last year, a figure that contrasts sharply with the weekly footfall at a major hub like Waterloo. Yet, it is this unassuming location that plays host to one of the Tube's most persistent paranormal tales.
A Sighting That Started It All
The first documented encounter dates back to 1952, as reported by the Mystical Time Blog. An engineer working in the substation at the platform's end looked up to see a middle-aged woman in a red scarf staring at him. The spectral figure then beckoned him towards a large switchboard and indicated he should follow her down an adjoining staircase.
"He felt compelled to follow her," the blog recounts, "and as he saw her take the last but one step, she completely vanished!" This eerie initial sighting established the pattern for decades of reports to come.
More Ghosts in the Tunnels
The tale of the red-scarfed woman is not the only ghost story echoing through London's subterranean network. Staff and passengers have reported numerous other supernatural occurrences across the system throughout the year.
One particularly active hotspot is the Kennington Loop. Here, a ghost believed to be a worker electrocuted on the tracks in the 1950s is said to slam train doors shut after all passengers have disembarked. These stories contribute to the rich tapestry of folklore that surrounds the world's oldest underground railway network.
For staff at Ickenham, sightings of the festive phantom have been reported by a multitude of personnel over the years, each telling a consistent story. The legend endures, ensuring that every Christmas, passengers might glance twice at a lone figure on the platform, wondering if they've just seen a ghost from London's haunted past.
