The Society for the Investigation of Spectral Phenomena
Surveyor's Findings at the Oxford Picture Hall
Erith Playhouse, old theatre, Slade Green, London
I.Background & History
The Erith Playhouse is a theatre at Slade Green, in the London borough of Bexley in south-east London. The building was originally the Oxford Cinema, and was afterwards turned to the uses of the playhouse which now occupies it.
The Society holds no further particulars of its building history that can be vouched for. The district lies on the Kentish bank of the Thames, among the marshes and the old parishes of Erith and Crayford, and the structure is of the plain, utilitarian kind common to places of public entertainment built in the last century.
Source: Erith Playhouse, Wikipedia
II.The Entity
The Gallery Likenesses
Faces of men, women and children surface in the grain of the old timber and the damp-stains of the plaster, each rendered in the muted brown of tea or old varnish. They are never carved or painted, yet their features sharpen year upon year until a parishioner may be known by name. The eyes of each are always turned towards the stage, and the mouths are very slightly open, as though about to applaud or to speak.
Assessment of Peril
Class III: Hostile
The Likenesses do not strike, but those whose faces appear upon the walls are observed to sicken and fail within the twelvemonth. Two officers of the Society who surveyed the building have not been traced.
III.The Account
I was instructed to survey the fabric of the Playhouse and submit measurements of the auditorium. The house stands upon ground that was, in the Regency, a barn and a tithe-yard in the parish of Erith, where the vestry met in winter to settle the poor-rate. The auditorium measures sixty-one feet from the proscenium to the rear wall, and forty-four across; I record these figures as I took them, twice, and with a steel tape. The timbers of the old roof and the boarding of the stalls are of deal and oak, much stained.
It was on the second day that I observed the first face. It lay in the grain of a stall-end, close to the aisle: a man's brow, a heavy jaw, a mouth gently parted. I took it for a trick of the knots. By evening I had counted nine in the north wall alone, in the water-stains of the plaster. The wardrobe mistress, Mrs. Tilling, told me without being asked that they had been there since her mother's time, and that there were more each Michaelmas. She would not look at the wall as she said it. The tradition of the house is that in 1816 the vestry of the barn voted to shut up a pauper-room without fire, and that the parish stood by while those within called out through the boards. The Likenesses are said to be the parish returning to see the entertainment it never paid for.
IV.Recorded Manifestations
- ✦Faces in the grain of boards and the stains of plaster, increasing by some dozens each Michaelmas
- ✦A sound of a crowded house settling in the dark, when the building is known to be empty
- ✦Warmth upon the nape of the neck in the empty stalls, as of many breaths
- ✦Likenesses of living parishioners appearing on the walls some months before their sickness
- ✦Tape and rule measures that give differing lengths each time they are applied to the gallery front
Testimony of Witnesses
“I knew every soul in that parish, sir, and I saw old Hannah Rudge on the barn wall a full month before we put her in the ground. She was looking at me.”
“They do not move when you watch them. But I have never once swept that floor without finding the stalls turned a little towards the wall.”
“I took them for damp and said so in writing. I have since had cause to withdraw the opinion; my own mother is on the plaster by the box office.”
V.Rite of Expulsion
Difficulty: Perilous
Requisites
- ☐A new tallow candle for every face upon the north wall
- ☐A parish register, or any list of names
- ☐A bowl of plain water
- ☐A length of black crape
- ☐A hand-bell
The Rite
- I.1. Enter at the hour before dawn, alone, and bolt no door behind you.
- II.2. Read aloud from the register every name that can be found, not omitting the poorest.
- III.3. Set a candle beneath each face as it is named, and light it with the left hand.
- IV.4. Wash the stain beneath each candle with the water, saying: 'You are heard.'
- V.5. Cover the last face, which will be your own, with the crape, and ring the bell once.
- VI.6. Leave by the door by which you entered, without looking at the walls.
Caution. Do not omit a single name, and do not leave before the final candle gutters. The Society's officer who stopped at the fortieth was found seated in the stalls at noon, looking at the stage, and was never again heard to speak.
VI.Hauntings of the Surrounding District
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Erith and District Hospital · Hospital · 0.7 miles
The Night-Porters' Cot, phantom procession. Bearers of a stretcher cross the ward corridor at three, and the sheet over it is always drawn up to the chin of whoever watches.
St Augustine's Church · Church · 0.7 miles
The Vestry Clerk, spectre. A stooped figure inks the burial register at dusk, and the names it writes are those of the living.
Our Lady of the Angels Church · Church · 0.8 miles
The Candle-Dipped Sister, white lady. A pale woman kneels at the rail with her hands burning like tapers, and turns to look at any who pray beside her.
Lesnes Abbey · Abbey · 2.3 miles
Brother Ashlar, revenant. A canon in a rotted cowl sets stones upon the ruined wall by night, and those who help him are not seen again.
St. Paulinus Church · Church · 1.8 miles
The Pew-Rapper, poltergeist. Knocking marches along the benches before every funeral, stopping at the seat of the next to be buried.
Joyce Green Hospital · Hospital · 2.3 miles
The Fever-Hand, possession. Convalescents in the old ward rise at night and write letters in a stranger's hand, naming the day of their own deaths.
St Mary and St Peter's Church · Church · 2.3 miles
The Bellrope Man, headless apparition. A figure with its neck bound in rope climbs the tower stair, and the bell tolls once when it reaches the top.
Hall Place · Manor House · 2.5 miles
The Tapestry Stag, spectral animal. A white stag stands in the long gallery at dusk, its eyes the eyes of a woman long unburied.
One Bell · Old Inn · 1.9 miles
Cooper's Dog, phantom hound. A wet-black hound lies across the taproom threshold, and the drinker who steps over it never drinks again.
Hornchurch Marshes · Church · 2.6 miles
The Reed-Cutters' Cortège, phantom procession. A slow file of men with scythes crosses the marsh in the mist, and carries between them a door with something lying on it.
Lesnes Abbey Woods · Ancient Wood · 2.4 miles
The Charcoal-Burner's Spark, will-o'-the-wisp. A low yellow flame leads travellers deeper among the trees until they are found standing, eyes open, in a cold clearing.
