Sorry, No Ghost

[poliphilo]

The Queen's House at Greenwich was built by architect and stage designer Inigo Jones for James I's Queen, Anne of Austria, and her daughter-in-law, Henrietta Maria.  Work was completed in 1635. It is claimed to be the earliest neo-classical building in Britain and to contain the earliest example in Britain of a spiral staircase without a central support.

TheTulip Staircase- so called because the ornamental ironwork of the banisters is believed to represent tulips (more probably fleur de lys- in tribute to Henrietta Maria's French origins)- was where in 1966 a Canadian clergyman inadvertently shot one of the most famous- and convincing- photographs of a ghost ever taken. I took several snaps, but nothing untoward turned up on any of them. Swizz!

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[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I was using flash on this- so the apparent brightness is a little deceptive. It was a dark, rainy afternoon.

Out of interest I checked to see when the ghost picture was taken- and the answer is between 5.15 and 5.30 on the afternoon of June 19- so in daylight. Neither the Rev'd Hardy nor his wife saw anything unusual at the time. It was only when the picture was developed that the ghost showed up.

[negothick.livejournal.com]

One of my two "ghost picture" stories also took place on a staircase. The now-closed Lighthouse Inn in New London, CT has a spiral staircase (WITH central support) that was famous for being haunted by a "bride" reputed to have fallen to her death as she descended the staircase. I was with a tour group telling them this story as we gazed at the staircase in daylight. I could see nothing on the stairs, but I looked down at the screen of the digital camera held by a young woman standing next to me, and there was forming a cloud on the stairs with an unmistakable skeletal hand holding the banister railing. She was not touching anything--simply holding the camera. She clicked--and there was the picture. I can attest that no manipulation of the image could have happened. She didn't even focus.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Fascinating.

My wife was once working behind the counter in small shop when she saw a person who wasn't visible in the flesh on the shop's CCTV. The shop, by the way, was in the cellar of a Masonic Lodge- and so a place of "power"- where one might expect the energies to be a little freaky. It's not unusual, I think, for ghosts to show up on recording devices (especially digital ones.)

Staircases are liminal and transitional. They feature in lots of ghost stories (true and fictional)