The Society for the Investigation of Spectral Phenomena
Letters from Severn Street on the Approaching Dream
Severn Street Synagogue, manor house, Highgate, West Midlands
I.Background & History
The Severn Street Synagogue stands at 60 Severn Street, Birmingham, in the district of Highgate. It was built for an Orthodox Jewish congregation founded in 1809, which worshipped in the Ashkenazi rite until it merged with the Singers Hill congregation in 1856.
The building afterwards passed from its original purpose and is now a masonic hall. It stands in a dense quarter of the city, among theatres, churches and hospitals, in the shadow of the canal-side streets near Gas Street.
II.The Entity
The Cantor's Shadow
A tall figure in a prayer shawl, always seen at the far end of whatever room the dreamer imagines, its back turned and its head bowed as though in prayer. The fringes of the shawl hang perfectly still even in a draught. Those who have glimpsed it waking say that it is always a little nearer than the last time, and that its low chanting is in no tongue the Society has been able to identify.
Assessment of Peril
Class IV: Malignant
Of eleven persons known to have slept in the building between 1953 and 1967, four died or disappeared and three were never afterwards able to sleep. The entity advances by measurable stages and appears to be aware of those who observe it.
III.The Account
The Society's file opens with a letter dated 14 November 1953 from Mr. Leonard Achurch, a caretaker employed by the lodge that then used the hall. He wrote in a small and careful hand that he had been given a camp bed in the vestibule during a spell of burst pipes, and that on his first night he dreamed of a long room with a lamp at one end and a figure in a shawl facing the wall. 'I thought nothing of it,' he wrote, 'save that I could hear the room very clearly, and that the floor was the boards of this very floor.' The Society replied, as is its custom, with a courteous request for particulars, and a printed form.
By the second letter, in December, Mr. Achurch reported that the dream had recurred each night he slept in the hall, and that the figure now stood nearer the middle of the room. A friend, Mr. Pryce, a bookkeeper and a known sceptic, had slept there on a wager and described the very same room to Mr. Achurch before being told of it. Mr. Pryce was found in January in the canal at Gas Street. The coroner recorded an open verdict. Mr. Achurch's letter that week was short, and asked whether a dream could be said to have a door.
The correspondence continues through the winter of 1954 in a hand that grows larger and less steady. The dreamer now stood in the vestibule in the dream, and the figure had reached the foot of the steps. The chanting had begun. Mr. Achurch wrote that on waking he could smell tallow and wet wool in the vestibule, and found the fringes of a shawl impressed in the dust on the floor, as though something had knelt there. Our Mr. Harcourt Venn travelled to Birmingham in February and slept in the hall on two successive nights. His own letter, the last in his hand, states only that the figure had turned its head by a quarter, and that he wished to be informed if it ever turned fully.
IV.Recorded Manifestations
- ✦A shared dream of a long room, a lamp, and a figure in a shawl, reported by every sleeper in the building
- ✦Low chanting in no recognisable tongue heard in the vestibule at about four in the morning
- ✦A smell of tallow and wet wool on waking
- ✦Impressions of heavy fringes in dust on the vestibule floor, nearer the door each month
- ✦Still air about the figure so that candle flames lean towards it
- ✦Sleepers able to describe each other's dreams before any word is exchanged
Testimony of Witnesses
“"I did not dream last night, sir, and that is what frightens me. I looked up and the lamp was lit and the door stood open for me."”
“"I would not go in the vestibule after dusk, not for the Master's own asking. There is a place on the boards where the dust lies in a pattern, and it is never the same place twice, only nearer."”
“"Three of my patients, strangers to one another, described the room in the same words. I have prescribed no sleeping draught since, for I do not wish them to reach the end of it."”
V.Rite of Expulsion
Difficulty: Perilous
Requisites
- ☐A clean white cloth
- ☐One new tallow candle
- ☐A bowl of cold water
- ☐A chair set facing the door
- ☐A watch with a loud tick
The Rite
- I.1. Enter the hall at dusk, awake, and do not sleep for any reason until the rite is done.
- II.2. Place the chair in the vestibule facing the inner door and light the candle at precisely eleven.
- III.3. Cover the bowl of water with the white cloth and set it at the foot of the steps.
- IV.4. At four in the morning, when the chanting begins, speak aloud the name of each person who has slept in the hall.
- V.5. Do not turn your head towards the hall, whatever you hear moving upon the boards.
- VI.6. When the candle leans toward the door, extinguish it with wet fingers and leave without looking back.
Caution. Mr. Venn of this Society closed his eyes for the space of a single breath in 1954. His coat was found where he had sat. Do not close your eyes.
VI.Hauntings of the Surrounding District
Select a bar to filter the register.
Birmingham and Midland Skin and Urinary Hospital · Hospital · 0.1 miles
The Night Dressers, phantom procession. Silent orderlies with covered trays cross the old ward corridor at three, and any who count them find one more than passed before.
The Alexandra · Old Theatre · 0.1 miles
The Gallery Sitter, spectre. A woman in mourning occupies the same upper seat each night, and the seat beside her is always warm.
St Jude's Church · Church · 0.2 miles
Parson Hallam's Return, revenant. A cleric digs at the churchyard wall at dusk, and what he seeks is said to be himself.
Thorp Street drill hall · Manor House · 0.2 miles
The Drill-Shed Muster, phantom procession. Boots tramp the empty hall at dawn, and the roll is called for men who never came back.
The Old Rep · Old Theatre · 0.2 miles
The Flyman's Knock, poltergeist. Ropes run up and down in the dark flies, and the rap that follows is meant to be answered.
Patrick Centre · Old Theatre · 0.2 miles
The Pale Understudy, white lady. A woman in white rehearses on the bare stage, and her lines are those of the person watching.
Theatre Royal · Old Theatre · 0.2 miles
The Stage-Door Coachman, headless apparition. A driver without a head sits upon a phantom box and waits for a passenger who has already been chosen.
The Night Out Theatre Restaurant · Old Theatre · 0.3 miles
The Supper Cat, spectral animal. A grey cat winds between the tables after closing, and diners who stroke it are found to have no memory of the evening.
CBSO Centre · Manor House · 0.3 miles
The Tuning Hush, unclassified entity. A silence falls in the hall before every concert, and in it something draws a bow across a string that is not there.
Gas Street Central · Church · 0.3 miles
The Basin Preacher, possession. A canal-side congregation speaks as one man in a voice that is not any of theirs, and recalls nothing after.
Birmingham Hippodrome · Old Theatre · 0.3 miles
The Limelight Man, spectre. A figure at the rail of the topmost gallery turns a dead lamp upon the stalls, and those it lights are never seen again in the house.
Hall of Memory · Manor House · 0.3 miles
The Cenotaph Muster, phantom procession. Pale ranks pass the pillars in silence on winter nights, each with a face turned away.
St Catherine of Siena Church · Church · 0.3 miles
The Sienna Flame, will-o'-the-wisp. A small pale light drifts along the aisle at night, and follows any who run from it.
St Asaph's Church · Church · 0.3 miles
The Verger of Ash Street, revenant. A grey sexton rings a bell that has no rope, and counts the parish at each stroke.
Birmingham Repertory Theatre · Old Theatre · 0.3 miles
The Green Room Hand, poltergeist. A hand taps upon the dressing-room mirror from the wrong side of the glass.
