This Paranormal Life - #367 The Best Ghost Photo Ever Taken? - The Queen's House

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

In 1966 a Canadian tourist visiting London, Reverend Ralph Hardy, took a photo that would become notorious as one of the greatest pieces of paranormal evidence ever captured. Despite consulting photographic experts and even Kodak themselves, it has never been proven to be a hoax. On this episode of This Paranormal Life, Kit and Rory investigate the site of this event: the Tulip staircase within the Queen's House in London, try to understand whether the events of 1966 were really paranormal, and even attempt to recreate Ralph Hardy's fateful photograph!Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunitySupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeIntro music by www.purple-planet.comEdited by Philip ShackladyResearch by Ewen Friers Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is Elvis alive to this day? Yes. What would... Don't interrupt. What would happen if you put wheels on a Ouija board and skated it like a skateboard? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of... This Paranormal Life! Hey, welcome back to This Paranormal Life.

This is the podcast where every Tuesday, we dissect a different paranormal case and get to the bottom of whether said paranormal case is really true or not. As always, you're joined by me Kit Grimelvin and this guy sitting across from me, Mr Rory Parr. How are you doing today, Rory? Hey, I love the idea of using a Ouija board as a skateboard, nailing some wheels to that thing and just bombing it down a hill. Because if the hill's steep enough, either way, you'll be able to talk to the dead at the end.

You might be face to face with them. Okay, so you're saying if you're in San Francisco cruising down Baxter Street, I think the steepest street in the city pretty much. Wow. Doesn't matter whether you went down there in an all white outfit or not, you were going to come away white and transparent. Absolutely, with all the other dead skateboarders that have passed away trying to go down that hill. It's interesting you bring up skateboarding as well, Kit, because I actually had a little weekend at the museums in London, just this past Saturday. And one of the exhibits that I went to was a whole exhibit on skateboarding

at the London Museum of Design, I believe. Cool. And it kind of covered skateboarding from its inception, from its earliest days, when it was basically just a two- four with wheels on either side and it progressed all the way up to the skateboards of the modern day. It was pretty cool. Did you have a penny board?

I didn't have a penny board. I know you did at one point. Yeah, I was just someone mentioned it the other day. I was like, where the f**k's my penny board? That was a great way of getting around. Yeah, pretty quick. I think the last time I had it was when I almost got hit by a car skating on it in London. So I don't remember if I put it in the bin after that. I had such a near

death experience, but I need to get back on my penny board. Penny boards are pretty good. They won't look alive. Pretty dangerous, but pretty fun. I'm not going to say whether that exhibit I went to was really good or bad, but I did go to another exhibit on the same day, which was an exhibit displaying ancient golden Chinese clocks. And I've been telling a lot of people about the clocks.

It's okay. Not so much the skateboarding. Sure. I guess people might already know a little bit more about skateboarding rather than... Yeah, the ancient golden ziming zhongs of the Forbidden Palace. Right.

Yeah, not a lot of people know about those. Yeah. They're pretty fascinating. You should look them up. Right, yeah. I know what a Chinese wristwatch might look like, but not from the Han dynasty. Right.

You could tell me a few facts about skateboarding, like Tony Hawk did it. You could do a kick flip or something. What can you tell me about the seven year old emperor who came to power and owned over 200 ziming zhongs? If the audio listeners aren't seeing this on YouTube, Rory is wearing a statue of a wristwatch, a golden statue instead of his usual Apple watch.

It's fascinating, history's fascinating. And presumably that's what we're gonna dive in today. Not Chinese history or skateboarding history, but maybe something even cooler. Maybe Rory, because you're right, we do of course, like every episode, have a brand new paranormal tale to dive into right here and now. On this Paranormal Life, at the end of every episode,

of course, we come down to a conclusion as to whether our case is true or not. And it's proven to be a high bar to meet. Pretty few cases over the years have earned the elusive double yes that places them in the Paranormal Hall of Fame. Right. Hell, we only just ended a nine month dry spell really recently. It's true. Yeah, it was the first time that we got a yes in close to a hundred episodes. You know, we take this job seriously.

If we're the people that you can rely on to decide whether or not something is paranormal, we have to make sure we treat that responsibility with the gravitas that it deserves. Almost like that of a fifth century Chinese clockmaker. Rory, you gotta stop talking about the... So dedicated to their craft, just kind of beautiful. But out of all the paranormal phenomenon in the world, maybe one category has been hardest of all to prove. Ghosts. Which is crazy because we have tried, we've investigated ghost ships, Hawaiian ghost warriors, demonic Japanese fire ghosts,

ghost mongooses, ghost jellyfish, even a masturbating ghost monkey. True. But there's always a problem because by their very nature they defy proof. You can't capture them like King Kong. They don't leave footprints. And even if you are lucky enough to capture a photo, enjoy being called a hoaxer for the rest of your life exactly you know ghosts are like love you can't see it you can't really even feel it so feel it yeah so how do you even prove that it's real you physically cannot yeah I think most people just most people do say it is though because they like feel it in

their life because you can't feel it well you can't look no you can't feel it it's invisible right isn't it I think we feel it in their life. Because you can't feel it. Well, you can't, no, you can't feel it. It's invisible, right, isn't it? I think what you mean is you can't touch it. But you can. That's the only thing you can do. All right, I don't like where your head's going. What I'm saying, you can feel it in your heart. How about that?

Apparently, allegedly. Jury's still out on that one. But it's just a hard one, because ghosts leave behind no physical evidence. They don't exist in our world, so how can we prove to you that they exist? And even worse, we live in the age of Photoshop, making things even muddier. Rory, I was frustrated by this because I've said Atlantis is real. I've said that the mythical Skunk Ape is real. I want to believe in ghosts. So I made it my mission to find the most undeniable

hauntings ever. And today's case, I hope, is going to tip us over the edge into believing in ghosts. It gets like, I'm going to find out once and for all whether or not ghosts are real. I'm going to kill myself live on the podcast. And then we'll see if there's one or two people hosting by the end. It's like, this is a terrible idea. I've got a gallon drum of diesel that I'm just going to pour over myself. to see if there's one or two people hosting by the end. It's like, this is a terrible idea. Please don't. I've got a gallen drum of diesel that I'm just gonna pour over myself.

I'm so excited. I am ready today. I'm coming at today's case with an open mind and an open heart. Let's find out whether or not- Close that heart, brother, because they can get in there, and they can get in there and possess you.

So close the heart. Keep the mind slightly open, though. Okay, okay. Close heart, open mind. Let's dive in. Right after a couple words from today's sponsors. And a reminder of course that every episode of This Paranormal Life is available ad free. Right now on Patreon.com forward slash This Paranormal Life

Not to... not... sorry. I know you didn't even introduce us back after the break. What? Are we back? Yeah, I know. I kind of... I was mid sip of Coca-Cola. But it's just funny, I just got a ping during the ad break that my Apple watch was on 10%. And isn't it kind of crazy that our watches, our clocks that are so advanced today don't hold a f***ing candle to the Xi Ming Zhongs of ancient China or ancient China. What does that mean?

Just something to think about. I mean, there's such completely different devices. Just something to think about. It's really fascinating. But like, I guess I'd say- And on with today's story. No, I haven't been to the exhibition and I really worry that I'm about to uncover

a whole can of worms that you're kind of actually just baiting me into asking you questions about the These these clocks I wouldn't do that But I would venture to guess that they actually weren't that good at timekeeping right because kind of these days we have quartz powered clocks Clocks that are incredibly accurate almost to an atomic scale. Yes some of these I couldn't even find the clock It was more or less just a golden statue of movie prices Yeah, they kind of made noise and I was like, oh, yeah, there it is It's in that child's eye the face of the car can barely see it. Right, right, right

Yeah, really the telling of time is so relevant in what way? Yeah, because also I don't even like Apple watches but like they can do a lot of shit They can like I think call the police if you fall over or something. I think they can like measure sound levels. I think they can do maps. Yeah, it's pretty, pretty advanced. So I don't know if like not holding a candle, it would be the right phrase to use. I just think it's pretty incredible that, uh, the best watches were actually

made hundreds of years ago. Just an interesting fact. Am I going to be flexing on the podcast? Because for the first time in 20 years, I went to a museum and learned something. And it's such a niche obtuse bit of information that it's completely irrelevant. And yet I will force it into today's podcast, maybe?

It's kind of beautiful, the kind of inception that's happening right now, because I would normally call that podcast brain, but this is beautiful. Normally, our listeners would go off and tell their loved ones useless knowledge. You're giving them useless knowledge that's not even relevant to today's case.

Oh yeah, completely irrelevant. Yeah, but still fun and interesting. Well, it remains to be seen if it's fun. Okay, today's story begins not far from here, in Greenwich, in London, England. We're in the Queen's House. And no, I'm not talking about Buckingham Palace. This is a building literally called the Queen's House, an old and brilliant building in the historic area of Greenwich that's filled with museums. And on one morning in 2002,

a member of staff named Tony Anderson was working in the Queen's house. Okay. He was walking through the drawing room with two other colleagues. Ugh, is anyone else in this morning? Just ask the thing, it stayed quiet till the weekend so not as many floor staff. Oh, who's that then? Just then, one of the doors to the bridge room closed and a woman was

walking from it. Oh yeah, is that Sarah? She does guided tours but they're usually on Saturdays. Only Sarah was walking a bit differently than usual. Oh, slightly smoother. It was at that moment they realized this woman was floating and slowly glided across the balcony and through a wall. That's not walking a little bit differently, by the way. Hovering in the sky. It was early in the morning and she was, their faculties were not all there, and she was floating very low to the ground.

Sarah was a little more translucent than usual. Did I mention Sarah had no skin? Usually she has a little bit of skin. She looked like long John Silver from Pirates of the Caribbean. She was completely see through, a skeleton. Tony would later say, I could not believe what I saw. I went very cold and the hairs on my arms and neck were on end.

They looked at each other, but they had all gone white, standing stock still, but as if in sync, curiosity took over and they all rushed to get another look. They ran into the Queen's presence room and looked down towards the old Queen's bedroom. And again, there she was, she glided through the anteroom and out through the wall whoa she was dressed in what they described as an old crinoline type dress white or gray and old-fashioned rory i'm going to quickly give you an idea of that type of dress here is an example okay because this is important because if this is a big fluffy dress that kind of covers the legs Hard to tell whether or not someone really is floating

interesting take That's this is exactly what I'm talking about kid is showing me the big white fluffy dress Yeah, this would completely mask your legs not saying that she wasn't floating But I'm just saying this girl could have been in heelies and we wouldn't have even known. Oh yes, and would the heelies or the dress help with, check some notes, floating through a wall? I didn't know that she went through the wall.

Yeah, she went through the wall as well. Pretty sick actually. Rory, we're sitting here in London. We know people can get pretty zesty with their fashion out here, but I think even that is unlikely in 2002. Yeah, I mean, you are in a historical building. I don't know if they have kind of guided tours. You know, I was at a Kew Gardens yesterday, very famous gardens in London. Jesus, you really was doing the rounds. I was, yeah. Did I mention the clocks? Alright, Ben Stiller, knighted the museum much?

But there were people dressed in old-timey outfits. God knows why. In a garden? It really didn't make much sense. So, museums certainly, there could be people in period outfits, I believe they're referred to as. Yes, we call them period outfits because much like a period... Stop now! No, stop now! Because much like a period, if you're wearing one of those outfits, we have reached the

end of our conversation together. But this is only one example of a ghostly sighting within the walls of the Queen's House. A building so old that it's had many lives. Once a royal residence almost 500 years ago, it was then a naval hospital, then an orphanage. Oh, Jesus. And even an asylum. That's insane.

Those are like the three hottest locations. But the insane people. Those are like the hotspots for where ghosts usually do appear. Asylums, old hospitals, and haunted castles. This was what was every single one! If haunted buildings had CVs or resumes, this thing is overqualified. This is a D1 college draft pick of houses to be haunted.

It's shown a ton of promise in the pre-season, and people are getting excited about what it's going to do out in the field. And because of this great history, it receives thousands of visitors a year. And over those years, both staff, like Tony, and visitors have experienced strange things within its walls. Okay. Sometimes, it's as simple as unseen footsteps. Other times, it's creepy singing and strange shadows on walls.

But on some occasions, it's even physical, with tourists being pinched by invisible hands or in Tony's case with full apparitions walking through the walls. I will give it to you though. It does feel complicated having Poltergeist activity in a building is kind of busy as this I mean you mentioned earlier you didn't know if there was tours and things like, like when you were at Kew Gardens. I mean, I used to work in the galleries. You well know I worked between the Tate Modern and the Tate Britain galleries in London. And places like that are kind of crazy. You know, I worked there for a couple of years and you really,

they employ so many people. You really don't know what's kind of going on on any given day. You know, you'll be having like a staff meeting and they'll be like, guys, it's with a heavy heart that we want to announce that, um, Alexander is finally retiring after 70 years of working here. And I'm like, I've never seen Alexander in my life. Right. This guy comes along. It looks like an NPC from a video game.

He's got a pink Mohawk. You're like, how could I have missed him? Right. You know, stuff comes out of the woodwork that you didn't know was there. Um, that being said, I mean, does this kind of paranormal activity seem like traditional ghost sightings to you?

Very traditional. To the point where I'm a little bit worried, cause we kind of kicked off today's episode with being like, we're going to decide once and for all whether or not ghosts are real by showing you some of the most convincing ghost evidence. And you're like, all right, brace yourself

for this bombshell, a woman in white floating through a wall. Stay with me here in a long dress. In a long dress. And she's from the past. You know, listen to what I'm saying. She's dead. She's long gone, but she's here.

And I'm like, I think you're, you're basically giving me the definition of a ghost, rather than showing me the most cutting edge paranormal ghost evidence I've ever seen before. Well, what do you want the ghost to be doing? Swinging through on Heelys? A kickflip! I want them to be doing something crazy. We all know what you want them to be doing. You want it to be the ghost of a fifth century clockmaker. Which, I'm sorry, it's not gonna be. Not today, not tomorrow. There just isn't that much.

We've said this before in the podcast. There's loads of great paranormal stories out there we'll never know because I can't read Chinese. There's a whole internet out there. Oh, you don't think that there's poltergeist in the Forbidden City in Beijing? Because there definitely is. There probably is.

I'm just saying if we want to get across the line today, this ghost needs to be doing something in the Forbidden City in Beijing. Because there definitely is. There probably is. I'm just saying if we want to get across the line today, this ghost needs to be doing something a little more impressive. We need something a little bit more bespoke. Alright, well just stay with me on that note, Lord. We know what this house was used for. All I'm going to say is, I've been in this game a long time, alright? If you start throwing around words like

woman and white, strange noise, my brain turns off. My brain shuts down. It shouldn't, because that's kind of the bread and butter of the paranormal. You just said the word vegetables to a toddler. I am kicking and screaming, I am now devoid of my brain. Pissed myself rolling around on the ground. Yeah, so you gotta be careful. What backwards world is this where I say UFO and Rory goes boring and I say clock?

And he's like I'm listening now. You're speaking my language. I'm just saying, you know, we've been doing this for a long time We're kind of numb to the base level paranormal evidence. I need I need some crazy stuff Yeah, but that's you just because you're a kind of drug addict of the paranormal who can't feel anything anymore. Our listeners don't live and breathe the paranormal every day. They probably dip into this paranormal life once a week. And so they're frankly sitting on the edge of their seat at what Tony Anderson saw. Okay. Okay. Well, I hope they are. I hope you guys are excited as I am.

Did the ghost make a wailing noise next? Was it like, oh? Alright, I don't appreciate the condescension all right, and yeah, they made like it wasn't a wailing It was like a it was like a whoo like yeah that checks out. That's like a pretty textbook actually Yeah, all right I need to cut a couple pages here. I don't think they're gonna hit quite as hard as I was hoping We know what this house was used for but but it all begs the question, who is haunting it? We've heard of this white lady or grey lady, but who is she? And is she alone or are there others? As we discussed, could be anybody, really. This building is housed,

naval officers, orphans, asylum residents, borderline the Joker himself. There's enough paranormal characters in one building to cast an entire West End show of just ghosts. Yes, why is it just a white woman? But there might be a clue, and that's in the origin of the building itself. It's believed that the house was a gift for its first royal resident, Queen Anne.

A gift because Anne's husband, James I, had lost his temper and swore at her. I've said it recently on the podcast, old timey gentlemen make modern men look like shit. Nowadays, girlfriends in the UK are lucky if they get a gift box from Lush on their birthday and taken to Nando's for a romantic dinner. Back in the day, they were commissioning 8th wonders of the world's because they hadn't to Nando's for a romantic dinner. Back in the day, they were commissioning Eighth Wonders of the Worlds because they hadn't got a text back for a couple days. So he lost his temper and swore at her

and as an apology he gave her a manner? Yes. That's pretty baller. Pretty good stuff. That's pretty cool. But it is, I mean, they say heavy is the head that wears the crown. I mean, that is the problem with being the king I don't mean Elvis. It's because

Yeah Your gifts have to be extravagant. Don't they? Right, right, right, right You really got to live up to the expectations of being the king You know the iTunes 25 pound gift card isn't cutting it It's gonna have to be the 500 pound gift card the one that's like dusty on the shelf that no one's ever bought No one's ever bought. No one's taken. Yeah. You can't just give them a 10 pound voucher for boots.

The store or the clothes. That's a weird gift. Got it. Got it. The, the toiletries shop. My last relationship for Christmas, I gave my girlfriend a defibrillator. And I said, cause every day I see you, I gave my girlfriend a defibrillator and I said, cause every day I see you, you stop my heart. And also I went to the doctor last week and he said, because of the amount of salt I consume, my heart is going to stop any seconds. So yeah, I actually might need to be defibrillated any day now,

but that's irrelevant. It's mostly the love thing. We're no longer together. She zapped me. She zapped me and left. She zapped me. I pissed myself and she took my wallet. Roy got zapped and he flew backwards out of the house like DJ Jazzy Jeff getting thrown out of the Bel Air mansion.

As I said, James the first gave this as a gift because he shouted at Queen Anne. Fun fact, if you're wondering why he lost his temper with Queen Anne, it was because she accidentally shot and killed his dog while they were out hunting. What? Yeah. Deserved. So like... I'm gonna shout a little bit.

I'm sorry, but I will. It was an accident. But my f***ing dog. I'm just saying, if she had seen the first John Wick movie, she would realize his reaction was actually pretty chill. Yeah. Given the scheme of things. Oh, the poor dog.

You're sad about a 500-year-old dog? I am. I wish it was the ghost of the dog that was appearing. That would have been good. But Queen Anne is just one ghost possibility. The next queen in the Queen house was Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles the First. During the Civil War, she fled to France and her husband was beheaded at Whitehall, only a couple of miles away in London. So I don't know, interesting that she was there and certainly her husband met a pretty grisly end, but she didn't.

She didn't meet a grisly end in London. It was her husband. So I don't know. I don't know. Maybe the bad vibes have been carried into the walls, but she wasn't beheaded. No, that's just irrelevant. Why do we even mention that? Because she was not a queen. She could be one of the queens. What are the... What do you mean one of the queens? We've seen a woman. We've seen a woman walking through the walls of the Queen's house. She wasn't even a queen. She was a queen. You didn't say she was a queen. She wasn't wearing a crown.. We've seen a woman. We've seen a woman walking through the walls of the Queen's house. She wasn't even a queen.

She was a queen. You didn't say she was a queen. She wasn't wearing a crown. She was just in a dress. Don't say she could be one of the queens. We're trying to find out the mystery of the queen. Oh, I'm sorry for thinking that a woman in the Queen's house was seen floating through a wall wearing a big gown

might have been a queen. I just love it. You talk about one queen. Imagine a second queen. a big gown, might have been a queen. I just love it. You talk about one queen, mention a second queen, and you're like, nothing bad happened to her. Her husband died. But could this be one of the queens? It's like, what are you talking about? So, okay, what you're implying is...

So let me get this straight. This building has been a queen's house, a naval base, and an asylum. So if we say, I'm sorry, but if we hear that a queen lived in it, what's more likely that the woman with a giant white dress, oh yeah, she was probably a naval officer. Yeah, she probably ran the Navy. Yeah. Or yeah, maybe she was an insane inmate of the asylum. Yeah, but I understand that. Yes, fine fine But weird to then mention the people who also nothing bad happened to them while they were in there You know that seems like a little around. Queen number three. All right. There's a third queen. There actually isn't a third queen

There are only two queens and one of them didn't even die! One of them it was her husband! No, well she did die eventually after she fled to France So it was the first queen? Probably, yeah Yeah, well I'm not gonna Hey, wouldn't that be a wouldn't it be a great restaurant if you just

walked in and then you're like, can I see a menu? And they were like, there's one thing there's one thing on the menu and it's this, and you're like, I don't want that and you're like, well, it's tough. I'm giving you up menu options. Okay. Okay. There was a third woman.

But sorry, but we don't need to talk about her. We don't need to talk about her because you said it was a queen. You were actually very angry with me when I suggested it was a... No, I said there was a strong possibility that the Queen's House might have the ghost of a Queen in it. This woman is a Queen? Don't worry about it, move on. Because you said it was a Queen. No, I insist, I insist.

We don't need to talk about this. I insist. There is one woman at the center of a shocking tale that took place 300 years ago. Legend says that a maid was thrown from the banisters at the top of a spiral staircase, falling 50 feet to her death. And interestingly, tourists have reported seeing the ghost of a pale woman in old-fashioned clothing frantically mopping blood at the bottom of the stairs. Wait, hold up. So who's the ghost the woman who died?

I actually don't know is she mopping her own blood is it one of the other maids who was told to get that blood off the Floor before anyone finds out that's dark. Yeah, if you are a maid and then you die and Your first job in the afterlife is cleaning up your own body. Pretty twisted stuff. That is pretty gross. It's like the ghost version of like digging your own grave and then they shoot you when you're done. Yeah. Oh God. That is dark.

Do any of these, frankly, equally awesome options for who the ghost could be speak to you? We didn't even know why the woman was thrown from the balcony. Is that just it? She just was thrown, but we don't know by who or why? I like to imagine the kind of opening scene of a mystery movie, you know, in like kind of like a Miss Marple or Poirot type show.

The person who pushes them over the edge would very much be shrouded in darkness, leaving a lot to the imagination for the rest of the episode. Right, well, we maybe get a little clue. Maybe there's a ring with an insignia. Or maybe they have a kind of wide-brimmed hat or something. Or the smoke of a cigar curling around their silhouette

against the moonlit window. That's the kind of energy I'm taking to this. Okay. I mean, if we're asking which one of these, I think, is the woman in white that we're talking about from the beginning. One was a maid, so it wasn't her. The other one didn't die in any tragic circumstances. So it was the first one. Okay. I'm glad that you like it so much that we could kind of lock in on that first one.

Well, I also, the last time I suggested that it wasn't a queen, you attacked me. So I think I'm just gonna say it was the queen, the first queen who died. But it turns out that I bring these stairs, the spiral staircase up for a reason. It's much more important than it would appear at first glance, Rory, because something else happened at these stairs. Something that made this a world-famous paranormal case. These are no ordinary stairs. They're called the Tulip Staircase. It's a famous feature of this building and architectural treasure. It's the first self-supported spiral

staircase of its kind in Britain and it's covered in beautiful wrought iron. Which is why in the summer of 1966 when Reverend Ralph Hardy and his wife visited the Queen's House they took lots of photos on their Zeiss icon Continental camera, including photos of the beautiful tulip staircase. Ralph was a keen photographer and when he returned to Canada he was really excited to develop all of his film from his trip to London. But when he leafed through the prints, one caught his eye. Oh, my God, what on earth is that? He had captured the tulip staircase on film.

That's for sure. But that wasn't all. Honey, can you come take a look at something? What is it, Ralphie? Well, this is the thing. I have no idea what it is. There had been no one on the stairs when he shot the photo. He had been trying to recreate another photo he had admired in a magazine before the trip.

What's more, on the day the couple had visited the museum, the stairs had been cordoned off, complete with a no-admittance sign. And yet, something was on the stairs. Rory, take a look. Oh, okay, so kids showing me a picture here of the staircase. This photo is way more dramatic than I thought it was gonna be.

I don't know in what capacity they were allowed to enter this building. This looks like it was taken at midnight. Yeah, like it's completely darkness. Full moon, thunder, candles, the lot. Yeah, there's like a glowing light in the background and what the f*** is this? Literally what is this? That's what Ralph said.

Okay, so when they say there was like a woman on slash by the staircase, I assume like standing there, maybe in like a very Victorian pose, like kind of hands placed in front of them. This is like a dramatic emo music video. Like they're kind of draped along the railing of the stairs. This is what we're dealing with. If I haven't been extremely explicit,

in this photo of the tulip staircase, there is a person. Some kind of person. And as you say, Rory, so often when we're faced with photographs that include supposed ghosts, they're usually just like standing there. They're standing there like Amish people in portraits from the 1900s. They're just like staring straight at the camera. Not the case here.

This is a very, pretty much unnerving kind of a pose. This photo is also so confusing. It looks like an optical illusion. It's taken me 60 seconds to figure out actually what part is the stairs and what I'm looking at here. Right. Because I thought that was the stairs. Those are, that's the bottom of the stairs. These are the top of the stairs. Those are, that's the bottom of the stairs. These are the top of the stairs. Right. You know, it's really confusing because it's so goddamn dark. But yeah, there it does look like there's a strange woman leaning on the railing in a very dramatic sense.

I'll actually hook you up with a black and white version two, which is a lot clearer, I would say. Holy shit, yeah, okay, they've blown this one out, really upped the contrast and the colors, and yeah, you can see a full body there, and hands, crucially, like hands. Again, just to be super clear, in lots of photographs of ghosts and things like that, it's kind of up for debate.

It's like, oh yeah, it looks like there's something like that, it's kind of up for debate. It's like, oh yeah, it looks like there's something, but right, there's something in this. Whether it was real, whether it was a ghost, whether it was whatever. And again, we're not just dealing with a shape. It's got, you can see actually the outline of fingers. I don't like this. Please take this away from me.

It's kind of scaring me. I think you will agree. It's terrifying. It's not just the figure. It's their of scaring me. I think you will agree it's terrifying. It's not just the figure it's their ghostly foreboding nature. But thankfully maybe because he was a religious man Reverend Hardy decided to look further into this for explanation. Had these negatives been tampered with maybe there was some kind of problem during development was someone staging an elaborate prank. He sent both the prints and the negatives to a series of photography experts.

They could not provide Hardy with any answers and in a last-ditch effort those experts sent the negatives to the official Kodak laboratories. Hmm, but Kodak confirmed that the photo had not been tampered with and they maintained that whatever was in that photo photo had not been tampered with, and they maintained that whatever was in that photo had been on the stairs that day. The news of Reverend Hardy's photo spread and eventually reached the British Ghost Club. Keen to investigate the location, they conducted a seance in the museum on the night of the 27th of June that next year, presumably 1967. They reported hearing strange footsteps and the clatter of horses' hooves outside the building,

and in fact lots of paranormal enthusiasts would keep going back to this building to investigate for decades afterwards. But despite lots of disturbing anecdotes, no one has come up with evidence quite like Reverend Hardy. And this is the centre of today's case. It's actually this photo that makes this case special, because in the world of paranormal investigation, the tulip staircase photograph is considered some of the most compelling paranormal evidence in the world. Unlike basically every other famous photo in history, it's never been proven to be a hoax.

Right, this thing definitely wasn't added in post, we know that for sure. So it's just whether or not it was actually a person on the stairs. Exactly. You know, and I've seen in my hunt for extremely believable, kind of undeniable ghost stories, I've come across a lot of cool photographs, ones I'm sure we'll look into in future investigations. But I will say some of the most famous are clearly things like, let's say double exposures, or at least they're most likely double exposures. We're talking things where like, you got a photo of a group of 10 guys taken 100 years

ago and then, oh, there's like another guy in the background that wasn't there that day. And it's like, right. But there's a world where, like back then cameras took like 20 minutes to expose a photograph. So if someone just wandered into frame, it would look ghostly and see through. That's true. But in this case, it's a little too dramatic. This isn't like just in the background,

the face of a woman, this is a very dramatic shot. What did you say happened when they did the seance? The British Ghost Club? They heard footsteps, things like that. Okay. What we've seen in other descriptions of what happened, but no evidence. That's... nothing. That's nothing. To a paranormal investigator, that's...

That's like, that's the bare minimum. If you're holding a seance, someone's gonna... Someone's gonna hear footprints, I would say, or footsteps, you know? That's like a candle flame flickering. Yeah, that's gonna happen. All right, buddy. That's like borderline, if you're keeping minutes for what happens, if you're writing them down, you don't even mention that.

Yeah. So someone felt a chill. Yeah, I bet they did. I bet they did. So you want, we're looking for a nut. That's like telling me someone got a little wet at Splash Mountain. We're kind of, that's just par for the course. So like I say, super important photograph.

But yet in the modern world of science, Rory, one result isn't necessarily proof, is it? It should be repeatable. That's why today on this paranormal life, in this episode right now, you and I are going to recreate the tulip staircase photographs almost 60 years later. We are going to go to the Queen's house right now. Whoa! Armed with analog film cameras and photograph

the staircase under roughly the same conditions as Reverend Hardy himself and see if we can capture the gray woman on camera. We can actually go there? We can. Where is it? Greenwich. Greenwich? That is actually not far. What do you say? Let's do it. What are we waiting for? Let's go! If you are somebody who loves all things spooky then Real Life Ghost Stories podcast is the one for you. My name is Emma I am the host of Real Life Ghost Stories podcast is the one for you. My name is Emma, I am the host of Real Life Ghost Stories podcast and every week I bring to you three

podcast episodes that are full to the brim with paranormal stories. Every Wednesday and Friday I release a mini episode which is dedicated to the spooky stories of our listeners and every Sunday we deep dive into a famous paranormal case. You can find Real Life Ghost Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Okay I think it's about time we take a look around. We obviously want to get some photos but Rory we do have the EMF reader I think we start there seeing if there are any hotspots up there that might be a good clue of where to start taking photos.

Alright, well it's maxed out now, here. Whoa, okay. So that's a little worrying. Whoa, get some weird stuff here. Oh, oh shit. Alright, so you let me know if that thing blows up. I'll take a photo and see if there's a ghost trying to hump your leg. Uh, I shouldn't have sinned so much this week.

Oh shit There's definitely a hot pocket and not in the delicious ham and cheese kind of way right here much more in the paranormal sense The spirit the ghost was actually draped over this railing I mean we're gonna have to go down and recreate exactly what happened But I'd say this isn't too far off the mark. The ghost I believe was dramatically kind of posing like this. I mean you're pretty bang on. Is that doing it for you? Alright we found the hotspot with the EMF reader. Rory's modeled it. Hopefully we've got a couple photos of the ghost giving him a piggyback. Time to get it exactly the way Ralph did in 1966.

Okay, while these things develop, we're going to head back to the studio. Oh, we're back. Whoo. Mamma Mia. Okay. We are literally just back from the Queen's house. First impressions. What do you think of it? Yeah, there was no faking involved.

We actually did stop the podcast and go there. It probably would have been smart to fake it, but instead we actually did leave. I'm sweating right now. It's hot outside. It's boiling. We could use some Hollywood magic just then. What a cool place.

That building does not disappoint whatsoever. Very cool. And we actually did get a lovely tour by the actual staff. Shout out to Naomi for letting us kind of get in early and do some recordings out there. Try and get some, get our hands on some real evidence before the tourists show up. We emailed Naomi and we said, we want to come at 3 a.m. on the 31st of October when the clock strikes midnight. She said, I work nine to five. I work nine to five and I don't care about whatever you're doing.

You better let us in Naomi, because we'll get in one way or another. I just got a f***ing chainsaw on the internet. I'll get into that building whether you let us in or not. Amazing building. It was really cool to look around it, but ultimately, whilst the legends that we've heard throughout this tale do centre on, yes, of course, the whole building. We were particularly interested in that tulip staircase because, again, lots of ghost sightings throughout the building, but it was the tulip staircase where the evidence of ghosts was found in the form of Ralph's photos from 1966. Were there that many ghosts, by the way, seen? Because you only mentioned three. And one of them actually didn't die, so it was two ghosts. Well, no, I mentioned a number of potential queens

that it could have been. Two, just to be clear, two. In the list of potential queens, it was two. And one of them was fine. Nothing happened there. Did you not like the house? Sorry, did you have a... The house was great.

I loved the house. Because Rory was... He didn't say any of this shit to Naomi. He was all sunshine and rainbows to Naomi. As soon as I showed up I was like, Naomi, thank you so much for letting us in. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. And then I get back here and I get to act all cool again.

All tough, being like, oh, shit show. Yeah, it was a bunch of crap. There was a couple of different ghosts. But it is hard to determine who's who. We don't know if the ghosts were indeed one of the queens because we do know that a maid was seen. So was it one of the maids as well? I don't know. Yes. What matters in this case was we were trying to recreate those photos from back in the day. That would be the silver bullet. Now I'm not saying we need the photos. I'm not saying we need the photos for this case.

You're saying it all hinges on the photos. It would have been nice. Well, it would have been a guaranteed double yes. Right. If we captured the spirit on camera. I mean, it would have been national news if we'd captured it on camera. So we are back.

We've taken, as you can see. We wouldn't be rambling this much if we'd managed to capture it on camera. We would have been screaming from the top of the roof. We've got a lot of Polaroid photos here.'d managed to capture it on camera. Right, we would have been screaming from the roof top. We've got a lot of Polaroid photos here, which if you're watching on YouTube.com, you can see that. Now is actually a good time to say this, you are watching this on YouTube, you're listening

to this in your podcast app of choice. We have also made a little short film, let's say, about visiting the Queen's house, about seeing a tulip staircase and photographing it. So we are going to link to that. And if you're watching on YouTube, we will hopefully have that embedded somewhere in the video here where you can check it out. But also links everywhere.

Yeah, short film might be a bit of an exaggeration. We're talking five men's in and out. Naomi didn't give us much rope to hang ourselves with. These are the Polaroids we took. So you can see more about those in that video. But for now, check this out. We've got those photos here, Rory. Take a few and have a little look.

It's a mix, it's a mix. We got, we started off with Rory searching the area with an EMF reader to search for hotspots, and that was very fruitful, wasn't it? It did go off, yeah. Now, I don't really put a lot of stock in EMF readers. I've seen them go off just by themselves in my bedroom at night.

My bedroom is not haunted, at least from what I can tell. Well, we've discussed the podcast before, there is a lot of sexual frustration, kind of pent up electromagnetic frequencies in the room. No, my bedroom's right. From gears of kind of incel kind of vibes. There's no sex demons in there. It's a completely fine place.

But the staircase itself, I'll tell you what, the coolest thing about all of this was actually getting to go and recreate a picture of a thing that existed that long ago. And the fact that it's the same thing, it's still there, this ancient staircase, that's kind of cool. And it is ancient, 400 years old. And it doesn't disappoint.

It's really dramatic when you're there. And I would not want to get pushed over the edge of it as a maid. I did try to really recreate some, and I think, you know, photos like this are pretty successful. That's good. You know, we could really imagine the creature

draped over the rails. This was less successful, I will say. I tried to line up my phone with the background to try and do a cool, you know, like on Instagram, people will do like famous locations and then they show side by side with today. That didn't work. You can just about see the curve of the staircase. That looks like a screenshot from a cop's body cam.

That is not really doing a lot for us. Yeah, yeah. I think the elephant in the room here is that we did not capture the dramatic spirit that was captured in 1966. There's no hands, there's no big spirit in a sheet. We didn't capture anything. Well, you know, you know.

These photos are empty. Well, let's not go that far. I thought we captured an orb. It turned out it was a light. Sure, the's not go that far. I thought we captured an orb. It turned out it was a light. Sure, the giant light in the background. I don't know if that's because we did this early in the morning. Maybe we need to go return at a paranormal hour,

but they do seem markedly empty. If you want to get real closeups of these and if you wanna search for yourselves, in that video we've made about visiting the Queen's House, we have done close-ups of the photos encouraging you to stop, hit pause, and kind of look for stuff in the background. So you can let us know if you see something we've missed.

Mm-hmm. But Rory, as exciting as that was to visit the Queen's House and the staircase, this is really about the general haunting of the Queen's House. The tulip staircase is by about the general haunting of the Queen's house. The tulip staircase is by far the most compelling bit of the story, but we've heard a bit about this building's sordid history from being a Queen's residence after it was given to her after shooting a dog, which is kind of bad vibes to start off with. Sure. So then becoming a naval residence, an orphanage, and later an asylum.

Yeah, at no point did you ever elaborate on all of the things that would have made this haunted. You were like, it was a house that belonged to Queens. We'll talk about that for about 45 minutes, and then right at the end, yeah, it was a mental asylum, a bone graveyard, pet cemetery, I think a wizard hideout for a couple of years, but no, we don't have time for that. Did I mention two queens lived there? And one of them died. A woman got pushed over the edge of the staircase and splatted into a pancake.

I'm aware of how many women passed away in the building. It's two. It's not that many. No, we don't know how many. We don't know how many. I think we do, because if there was more you would have mentioned it. Have you seen Arkham Asylum? That is my singular reference point for asylums. Brother, I'm living in it in this episode.

I feel like I'm there. Uh, look, I like the fact that we were able to visit this thing. I like the idea of recreating the photo. But what the f*** is this thing. I like the idea of recreating the photo. But what the f*** is this thing? All we have is a story about one woman who died on the stairs, no reason why she would ever come back, no explanation as to why she would still be there, why she would be haunting. I don't know, we don't have a lot of information today. You don't need a story when you have a photo. Normally all we've got is story.

Normally we sit around jacking ourselves off for 65 minutes telling a great story and then at the end we're like where's the photos? My pockets are empty. Right, okay. But today we have the photo of a lifetime and yes some story. A 400 year old history of a building where yeah I'm gonna guess a few people died over 400 years I'm just saying I don't see a reason why I don't understand why this ghost would still be there I don't know who the ghost is someone splattered So it's murdered but every time I say every time I say so it was the splattered woman you go

It could have been the Queen Who was it then? I'm going crazy here. Look at, where's the photo? Don't show him the picture again. I'm gonna lose it. You tell me. It's a It's a it's a demon. It's a ghost in a sheet. No, it's not a woman. We don't know You're the investigator you tell me I brought you the evidence It's a no this week. It's a no this week. This is insane. Ladies and gentlemen,

Rory... Look at these pictures. There's not a single... We didn't get a single thing. Rory will never give a ghost case a yes. I have before in the past. He will never do it. He will never do it again. I've done it before. Because I have given him the most world famous, never explained, never proven to be a hoax, photograph of a ghost in one of the most historic buildings in Britain. And he's telling me it's bullshit. So how about I ask you a couple questions.

Sure. How do they hoax it? You explain it yourself on the podcast. Double exposure. Incredibly easy to just have a woman on the stairs and then move her out of frame while the picture's being taken. I don't think you've studied that image enough, bud. I don't think you've studied that image enough. It's literally that easy.

Nope. It's not that easy. You tell, you tell me that's a person. Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. To be honest with you, the person, this is such a clear picture of the ghost. Why did I let you brainwash me so much? This person isn't even transparent. It's just a person standing on the stairs.

Why would ghosts be transparent? They're not even a ghost. It's just a full body of a person on the stairs. Why did I let you convince me that this was a ghost? A piece of evidence like this should be the final nail in the coffin. Where's the coffin? Where are the other nails? All we have is a single nail.

No, no. That's it. I think people can absolutely see through what's happened here. I've told you a good story. Oh, they ain't seeing through this ghost. With several plausible deaths. Rock hard. And then the only time...

Several deaths. Did you even tell me the name of the woman who died? It was 400 years ago. How the hell would I know? So no idea. It's just a legend. How would I know? Right. It's a yes from me because this is one of the most fantastic pieces of paranormal evidence in history And it's unfortunate that we were not able to recreate it. That would have been really nice But hey, I have faith too that maybe you know in the kind of style of online reddit journalism that someone who's watching the video online might be able to pause hit something we've not seen

that we missed in these photos. So just to be clear, just to be clear, yeah we didn't even need to go to the staircase because all we did was go and get nothing and Kit said and it's still a yes. It's still a yes. That's how good the original photograph is. To be clear, there was no outcome hinging on the results of these photographs. On the way to the building, Kit was like, I'm going to give it a yes between you and me. It's just like Ireland in the Six Nations. It's like, we won the tournament. Well, we didn't, because they didn't even come down to a conclusion. This is just the grand slam. This is like, you didn't, because they didn't even come down around the conclusion. This is just the Grand Slam.

Before. This is like, you've already won on points, but then there's a couple more games to see who wins the Grand Slam, and that's kind of like an extra attaboy, but you really don't need it. Okay. Hey, I'm always excited when a ghost story gets a yes on the podcast. I think for me personally, it's gonna need a little bit more to get it over the line. Wow. Well, I think a ghost would have to break into the studio and suck Rory off for him to give it a yes.

So crass. So I hope you guys though have enjoyed this investigation into the Queen's house. Which ghost was it in the end, Kit? Reveal the truth. Was it the Queen who we don't know what happened to? Or the maid whose name we don't have or have any idea when she even died? Or who was seen by anyone? Or was it the second queen who didn't even die at all? She was just the other queen.

The paranormal doesn't work like that. I don't have all the answers. Wow, okay. I've told you an hour long story and given you photographic evidence. That's enough. And the charlatan that took this picture? What are their kind of credentials in the world of the paranormal? They were a reverend, so actually pretty decent.

They were a man of the cloth. Thank you for listening. Are you quite done? Because I'm trying to wrap up, but you seem to be really bit. Now you've said your piece. You're going to know you should be happy with that, right? You can't just let the audience make up their own mind. I want them to.

I want them to. And I think they will. So thank you for listening to this week's episode all about the tulip staircase in the Queen's house in Greenwich. Go check it out if you are ever visiting London. Highly recommend. Don't talk to Naomi. We didn't end on the best terms. Rory was kind of, he was sucking up to her for a while until he kind of flipped when he started to see that we didn't see a ghost right away. He was like, what kind of scam is this? She was like, you didn't, you didn't, I didn't guarantee you'd get to see any ghosts. I started kind of just workshopping different ideas and I was like, well, one way would

be to kind of replicate the event of pushing a maid off the, and she left. A maid. She left immediately. She kind of knew where things were headed. So check it out if you are so interested. Check out the video that we've mentioned. It'll be linked in the description as well as popping up somewhere on the screen on YouTube. As I say, if you are listening to this in the normal places, make sure you are subscribed on YouTube as well, because hopefully you've enjoyed this audio episode.

But, you know, this is what we're doing these days, Rory, is we are bolstering our cases. We are making fantastic video content now as well. So you're going to need to be subscribed on YouTube too to see that fun stuff. Yeah, we're doing a bunch of cool new on location stuff, apparently to compensate for the lack of actual evidence in the case when it's hosted in the studio. Yeah, well it's pretty impressive isn't it that after seven years it took Kit to finally get us out of the studio for once. Roy had to be begged to simply leave the studio. And then when he did go, he kept his sunglasses on the entire time

and then said the whole thing was fake at the end. So that was really fruitful, wasn't it? So let's hope that next time, he's a bit more open-minded. Looking forward to it. Hey, there's a ton of really cool places to explore in London. So it won't be long, I'm sure, before we're back out on the road. Lookin' forward to it. Hey, there's a ton of really cool places to explore in London, so it won't be long I'm sure before we're back out on the road. One other cool thing we're doing to spice up this story too, Rory, is once we have properly

poured over these invaluable, priceless Polaroid pictures of the Queen's house, they will be useless to us, and we would rather that they beautifully decorate the homes of our patrons, which is why. Arguably, they're useless now. No, not the case. They're priceless. They're priceless right now. Right now, as we're recording. Priceless, worth nothing, is what you're saying, right?

No. They have no face. Shut the f*** up. Okay. We are over on Patreon. Shut the f*** up. We are over on Patreon. Every month we give away a priceless artifact from the studio here in London. We've given away amazing things in the past like EMF readers, tour items, merchandise,

crystal skulls in some cases. So now is a great time to, we are going to assign some of these Polaroids and give them away. We used to do a bit more of of these Polaroids and give them away. We used to do a bit more of that with Polaroids. They're really cool and creepy. Yeah. So, um, you know, we can send them across the world, you know, keep it in your wallet, show it to people at bars on first dates and, um, stay single forever.

Um, so if you're interested in that, head over to patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life, check out those raffle giveaways. Where and let's face it, go check out the raffle. Stick around for all the hundreds of bonus episodes we've recorded over the last few years. Tons of great content, extra episodes coming out every week and every month. Check it out.

patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life. Thank you for tuning in to, let's face it, one of the most compelling stories we've had in a long time. Thank you to Rory for nothing, actually. And thank you to Phil for coming on location and actually being a great sport, really open-minded about this case. Thank you to the audience too for keeping an open mind. Yeah, it really was a real joy to be brought along

on this adventure. So what would you say, we'll do a poll, see what people think? No, I don't think we need to do that. So, you know, don't head over to the socials this week because I don't really want to know what people think. Thank you for listening. We are going to be back on Tuesday

with a brand new Paranormal Tale, and of course on Friday before then with the after party on Patreon. Bye bye!