Spectral Encounters #1
Spectral Encounters #1
Autumnal Tales for the Halloween Season
A Real-Life Account of Ghostly Phenomena in the Workplace
A few years ago when I was lecturing at the London College of Fashion, I’d often stay late to tidy up the visual merchandising studio. As the autumn nights began to close in, it felt incredibly creepy, being alone in a room full of shop window mannequins after dark.
One day I got chatting about this with Sarah, a visiting VM lecturer, and she told me about a really hideous experience that she’d had, just a short walk away on Oxford Street. The following is her account of the event, in her own words.
Sarah’s Story
During my time working at The Pantheon, Marks & Spencer’s Store in Oxford Street, we were all aware of the stories that the store was haunted.
The building is situated on the site of The Pantheon Theatre which opened in 1772, and was a popular place of entertainment until it burned to the ground in 1792.
The older ladies who’d worked in the store for several years were always talking about the Lower Ground floor being haunted, and that the team did not like working through the night on that floor, because there was always a strange type of energy around.
Our display studio was on the top floor, a floor at the time where there was a vast storage space. Apart from the studio there was nothing else up there.
As a team manager I used this studio space to write my appraisals, so I would lock the door to have privacy within the office.
One day, while writing my team’s appraisals, I could suddenly sense a different energy around me, I felt very uncomfortable as if someone was standing behind me.
After a few minutes I felt something hit my shoulder, and as I spun round, a pencil landed on the floor. The door was locked so I couldn’t understand how that had happened.
Another day, I was up there again at my desk, and once more I felt really uneasy, so I turned around and saw that there was a kind of hazy energy. When I turned back round to face my desk – I was shocked to see a pencil had been stood up and balanced on its end as if an invisible hand had its finger on the tip!!!
I immediately knocked it over and ran out of the room!
I was never comfortable in the studio after that. One of the older ladies in the store had heard what had happened and brought in some holy water, creating a little ceremony in the studio and saying a prayer.
Thankfully, this did calm down the activity and energy within the room for a short while.
So, that was Sarah’s story, and it made a big impression on me when she told me. I’ve had my own WTF!?! experiences, but the freestanding pencil scenario was major-league freaky!