Ghouls dish the dirt on Smithfield's spooky past

Ghouls dish the dirt on Smithfield's spooky past
April 8, 2009
Islington Gazette 24

IN A new tour of terror, ghosts are set to spill the beans on the Islington's gruesome past.

Haunted History Walks, run by the London Paranormal Society, have proved a hit with tourists and residents.

The first tour, called Spooky Smithfield and Beyond, is run from Smithfield Market.

Ian Shillito, who lives off Clerkenwell Road, is the founder of the London Paranormal Society and organises the monthly walks which started last Halloween.

He said: "Smithfield is a phenomenal place to start as it used to be used for executions and people would be burned in oil. We put a lot of emphasis on the historical side. It's proving popular at the moment."

He added: "What makes us different from other tours is that we have ghoulish characters who get involved. They pop up, frighten people and explain who they are and deliver their scary story.

"I play a character called John Bishop who was one of the London Burkers - a group of body snatchers who sold corpses to surgeons in St Bartholomew's Hospital. The other characters we have are a whore from Cock Lane and a monk from the Church of Bartholomew the Great in West Smithfield."

The next ghostly walk is scheduled for May 6, and lasts around 90 minutes.

One of the stories the walk reveals is the tale of the Scratching Fanny of Cock Lane -a fabricated story in 1762, which gained huge media attention. A man started to charge a fee to enter his home in Cock Lane, for people to hear the ghost of Fanny scratching the walls.

Mr Shillito said: "It turned out to be a hoax and William Parsons, a church clerk who made up the story, was jailed for two years.