While curling up on the couch to enjoy some classic Halloween movies can be a fun way to celebrate the spooky season, why not venture into the spooky settings yourself that just might be right in your backyard. London has a couple of haunted houses of its own, with ghost stories to share. Whether you are a believer or not, these are London, Ontario’s most haunted historical spots.
Eldon House (481 Ridout St N)
Eldon House, London, Ontario
The beautiful white shuttered home lies in the tight streets of downtown London. Enclosed by a beautiful Victorian fence and a mystical garden. The home known as Eldon House is one of London’s oldest and completely original. Built in 1834 the house was home to the Harris family who occupied it until 1961 when they donated it including all its original furniture, pictures and more. Its most popular ghost story is the tale of Lieutenant Wenman Wynniatt.
Eldon House, London, Ontario
The Lieutenant was set to accompany Sarrah Harris to a ball being hosted at the home. However, Wynniatt didn’t attend the party until later than he was supposed to, guests at the party reported seeing him through a window before he wasn’t seen again until the next day when his body was found in the Thames River. The watch on his wrist was frozen to the last time anybody had seen him.
Joe O’Neil Jr, chair of the board at Eldon House, shared his own ghost story from a few years back. As chair of the board, he is on call for the house in case of emergency.
“We get an alarm going off at two in the morning. Right. Get out of bed. Go over. Sure enough, there were two doors that had to be closed that were open about two feet, and I thought, oh no, a raccoon or something got in,” shared O’Neil Jr.
O’Neil Jr searched the house but found nothing. Only for the same thing to happen again another night, but luckily O’Neil Jr was carrying his camera.
“I love photography. So I had my camera, I took some of the best night shots I’ve ever done,” added O’Neil Jr.
Millie Harris, one of the original daughters of the home, who left diaries to the home, was also a photographer.
“My own favourite explanation is Millie Harris, who was the photographer, you know, was kind of egging me on saying, hey, Joe would love to photograph this. So she opened the door, set the alarm off, knowing I’d come down” said O’Neil Jr.
The Eldon house is open for visitors; you can book tours and hear more of its spookiest secrets for yourself.
The Grand Theater (471 Richmond St)
Grand Theatre, London, Ontario
The dazzling grand theatre opened its doors in London, Ontario, in September of 1901 and has not shut them since. Still showcasing theatre performances in its original beauty today.
The theatre has a mysterious past, the most popular of its tales is the story of its original owner, Ambrose J. Small.
Grand Theatre, London, Ontario
Small was a wealthy businessman originally from Toronto who decided to sell the theatre in 1919 for an estimated price of $750,000. However, when the theatre was purchased, Small never showed up to collect the check and disappeared without a trace. Police found no evidence of foul play, running away or suicide, and a conclusion was never reached, leaving his disappearance to this day unsolved.
Allegedly many Londoners believe Small haunts the theatre and can be seen standing on the balcony.
O’Neil Jr, aside from his duties as chair of Eldon House and owner of O’Neil Funeral Home, has spent most of his life studying the haunting history of London, one of his specialties is the placement of old graveyards.
“The Grand Theater is actually built on top of an old graveyard. It’s built directly on top of the St. Lawrence burial ground; it dates back to the 1850s. And there was actually a newspaper article, I photocopied from 1901 when they were building the Grand, that they kept digging up graves and nobody knew where they were from” shared O’Neil Jr.
So while its most popular tale may be the haunting of small, perhaps more ghosts call the theatre home as well.
Thames River Victoria Day Disaster (109 Greenside Ave)
Thames River, London, Ontario
On Victoria Day of 1881, a steamboat carrying many Londoners on a celebratory cruise down the river faced a terrible fate. The SS Victoria capsized on the blue rushing waters of the Thames River, claiming more than 200 lives. The boat was over capacity, and when passengers rushed to the ship’s edge to wave to the shorelines, the lower deck took on water.
This resulted in the ship’s boiler detaching, it came crashing down on passengers destroying the ship and trapping passengers under debris.
Those who managed to swim to shore ran to town in drenched apparel screaming for help. The town pulled 200 bodies from the water over the next 5 days, bringing in a sister ship to act as a morgue.
Victoria Day Shipwreck, London, Ontario
Today, the shores near the spot in which the ship sank are known as Greenway off-leash dog park.
A plaque is in place with the tale, and attached at the foot is the original anchor from the ship.
“We can often learn things of history from ghost stories that you can’t learn anywhere else. especially if there’s trauma involved. And that’s why we always seem to have ghost stories around something like the Victoria Boat disaster. People can’t bear to bring to mind the things that they saw.” Said O’neil Jr.
This incident is the highest number of deaths in London in a single day. A tragic and haunting tragedy, perhaps the passengers still wander the shore today.
What is simply a folk tale and what is truly left behind by the haunting history is up for you to decide. Happy ghost hunting.
