Anne Naylor’s tragic murder and the haunting at Farringdon Station in London serve as a chilling reminder that some past horrors refuse to be forgotten
London’s Farringdon Underground Station, bustling by day and eerily quiet at night, holds a chilling secret.
This historic stop on the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines may appear like any other station on the London Underground.
However, beneath its platforms, there lurks a sorrowful tale of tragedy and brutality.
The station is said to be haunted by the agonising screams of Anne Naylor, a 13-year-old girl who was brutally murdered long before the railway was ever built.
To this day, her cries are reported to echo down the tracks, unsettling those who dare to linger after dark.
The Dark History of Anne Naylor
To understand this haunting, we must travel back to 1758, long before Farringdon became a hub of modern transport.
In those days, the area was a hodgepodge of run-down streets, notorious for criminal activity and extreme poverty.
Among the many poor souls living in this harsh environment was young Anne Naylor, an apprentice hat-maker working for an evil woman named Sarah Metyard and her equally cruel daughter.
The two women ran a millinery business and were known for their brutal treatment of their apprentices, but no one would have guessed how far their cruelty could go.
Anne Naylor was a frail girl, lacking the physical strength required for the demanding work in the hat trade.
This perceived weakness made her a target for the Metyards, who subjected her to relentless beatings and starved her as punishment for her inability to keep up with their demands.
Anne’s life was one of constant pain and fear, but the worst was yet to come.
After one particularly brutal beating, Anne succumbed to her injuries and died.
Instead of reporting the death, Sarah and her daughter panicked. They hid Anne’s body in the attic, but as decomposition set in, the stench became unbearable.
Desperate to avoid suspicion, they made a horrific decision. First, they attempted to burn the body in their fireplace, but the smell of burning flesh began to alarm their neighbours.
In a final, gruesome act, they chopped up Anne’s remains and discarded them in an open sewer, which ran where Farringdon Station would later be built.
Justice, Too Late
Initially, the murder of Anne Naylor went unnoticed. When parts of her dismembered body were found, the local coroner ruled, rather bizarrely, that she had not been murdered.
The Metyards likely thought they had escaped justice. But years later, guilt – or perhaps arrogance – got the better of them.
Sarah Metyard’s daughter, unable to bear the weight of their crime, confessed to what they had done. The two were eventually arrested and tried for the murder of Anne Naylor.
Both women were sentenced to hang, and justice was finally served, though far too late to save Anne.
But this is not where Anne’s story ends. It seems her restless spirit remains trapped near the site of her tragic death.
The Screaming Spectre of Farringdon Station
In 1863, more than a century after Anne Naylor’s murder, Farringdon Station opened as part of the world’s first underground railway. Almost immediately, strange reports began to circulate.
Commuters and staff alike claimed to hear terrifying, high-pitched screams echoing through the tunnels late at night.
These blood-curdling cries were often described as sounding like a young girl in desperate pain—a chilling reminder of Anne Naylor’s final hours.
While some might dismiss these stories as tricks of the mind or simply the eerie acoustics of a nearly empty station, many believe the screams are far too specific to ignore.
Anne’s restless spirit, it is said, wanders the platforms and tracks, forever seeking justice or perhaps simply peace. Her unending wails have earned her the ominous nickname, The Screaming Spectre of Farringdon.
Late-night passengers waiting for their train have reported sudden, inexplicable chills, while others claim to have heard the distant echoes of those heart-breaking cries.
Some believe the haunting is most active in the early hours, particularly around the time when the night gives way to dawn – perhaps the very hour when Anne’s life was so brutally cut short.
The haunting of Farringdon Station isn’t just a ghost story; it’s a reminder that the past is never truly forgotten. The echoes of injustice linger, sometimes in the form of restless spirits, demanding that we remember the wrongs that were done.
But if you’re unlucky, you might hear the faint, sorrowful scream of a girl who never found peace.
Have you ever seen anything paranormal at Farringdon Station in London? Tell us in the comments section below!
