My Diary of October 2025: The Ghost of the Tulip Staircase
17th October 2025 by | Uncategorized
The night is still, the moon a pale lantern above the fields, and the fen mist curls close against the windows. From the hedgerows I hear the rustle of some unseen creature, the distant call of an owl. These are the sounds that stir my thoughts towards old tales — stories that linger where silence meets shadow.
In Greenwich stands the Queen’s House, home to one of the most famous ghost photographs ever taken. It was 1966 when the Reverend R. W. Hardy lifted his camera to capture the graceful sweep of the Tulip Staircase. What he saw at the time was only the elegant ironwork, the rising spiral, the symmetry of light and line. Yet when the film was developed, another presence revealed itself.
There, faint yet unmistakable, were the blurred outlines of hands clutching the rail. Some claimed they saw more than one figure, shrouded forms gliding up the staircase. Hardy swore no one was there when he pressed the shutter. Experts examined the negative and found no sign of tampering.
Was it no more than a trick of light, a fault of the film? Or had the Queen’s House offered up a glimpse of its restless dead?
The photograph has never been fully explained. Each time I look at it, I think of how thin the veil can be — how, in certain places, the past seems unwilling to remain silent.
(The accompanying image is an artistic interpretation, created in the spirit of the story. The original photograph, taken in 1966, is held in collections at the Queen’s House, Greenwich.)
Sources: Queen’s House, Greenwich; accounts of Rev. R. W. Hardy’s photograph (1966).
What do you make of the image—fake or fiction?
Thank you for reading my posts
Gemma
Look out for another story tomorrow at sundown
www.murderinthetower.london
The past is never silent
Legend not verified history.