As I stepped over the threshold into Hackney’s most haunted house the temperature dropped by several degrees.
Perhaps it was something to do with it being the first day of spring, or perhaps it was something more sinister.
“Home of the Grey Lady”
The “friendly” ghosts of Sutton House are something of a legend in the Hackney borough.
The house was built in 1535 by Henry VIII’s courtier Sir Ralph Sadleir, who features in current BBC series Wolf Hall.
Rumoured to be the home of the Grey Lady, this Tudor time capsule featured on TV series Most Haunted back in 2007.
Blue band member Lee Ryan famously got the spooks after a table appeared to levitate.
But are the myths to be believed?
Curiosity got the better of me and I decided the reported supernatural sightings of a weak-kneed boy-band member weren’t going to cut it.
I was going to have to meet these pesky ghouls myself. I ask when they usually came out.
“The music stopped suddenly”
“The previous manager was awoken at 3am one night last year to the sound of loud classical music, as though someone was banging on a harpsichord,” duty manager Helen Rowse tells me before I embark on my ghost-hunting expedition.
“She took her little dog and went downstairs to the chamber, where the piano lives.
“The music was so loud, it sounded as though it was just behind the door. But as she turned the key in the lock, the music stopped suddenly.”
Spooky. But it was going to take more than a bit of classical music to truly convince me. I ask if there have been more sightings.
“Plenty more,” says Helen. “The family had three dogs, all lurchers, which feature on the family crest.
“Our housekeeper Ann says when she locks up every night she feels wiry hair brushing against her right hand.”
Well that’s a relief. But it’s still time to explore this mysterious house for myself.
The Grey Lady in the nursery
I make my way down to the cellar. I shiver as I enter the windowless dungeon. Through the darkness I can hear some mysterious crackling music, which I discover is coming from a small projector in a hole in the wall.
I linger, waiting to feel something: a hand on my shoulder or breathing against my neck.
Nothing. I make my way back upstairs.
The floorboards creak eerily as I step into the old nursery. It is here that the Grey Lady is said to wait for her two children who died in infancy.
Legend has it an archaeology student staying at the house in the 1990s woke in the night to find her standing over him, shaking his bed.
As I wander through the oak-paneled rooms, I stop to glance at an information board. Why can I hear creaking on the other side of the wall?
I stand deadly still, feeling paranoid, yet hoping I might finally encounter something of the supernatural.
Could this be it?
Another creak. Could this be it? The lady at reception told me I was the first visitor of the day. Could this really be the Grey Lady? My heart races.
“Exactly what I was looking for!”
The sound of a voice shocks me so much I let out a short squeal.
“Babe, I think this would be perfect for the wedding,” a man in skinny jeans says to his purple-haired companion.
A gay couple are planning their wedding. Red-faced, I leave the room.
The lady at reception calls after me as I sidle down the path back to Homerton High Street. “So soon?” she asks, disappointed that I won’t be staying for tea.
I thank her, and as gate creaks closed behind me I am certain I hear the distant bark of a dog.
Ghost-believers or not, the organisers of the Sutton House wedding might need to cater for some very special guests indeed.
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