Description: Rev. Ralph Hardy, a retired clergyman from White Rock, British
Columbia, took this now-famous photograph in 1966. He intended
merely to photograph the elegant spiral staircase (known as the
Tulip Staircase) in the Queens House section of the National
Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. Upon development, however,
the photo revealed a shrouded figure climbing the stairs, seeming to
hold the railing with both hands. Experts, including some from
Kodak, who examined the original negative concluded that it had not
been tampered with. Its been said that unexplained figures have been
seen on occasion in the vicinity of the staircase, and unexplained
footsteps have also been heard. Interesting side note This photo
isnt the only evidence of ghostly activity at the Queens House. The
400-year-old building is credited with several other apparitions and
phantom footsteps even today. Recently, a Gallery Assistant was
discussing a tea break with two colleagues when he saw one of the
doors to the Bridge Room close by itself. At first he thought it was
one of the lecturers. Then I saw a woman glide across the balcony,
and pass through the wall on the west balcony, he said. I couldnt
believe what I saw. I went very cold and the hair on my arms and my
neck stood on end. We all dashed through to the Queens Presents Room
and looked down towards the Queens Bedroom. Something passed through
the ante-room and out through the wall. Then my colleagues all froze
too. The lady was dressed in a white-grey colour crinoline type
dress. Other ghostly goings-on include the unexplained choral
chanting of children, the figure of a pale woman frantically mopping
blood at the bottom of the Tulip Staircase (its said that 300 years
ago a maid was thrown from the highest banister, plunging 50 feet to
her death), slamming doors, and even tourists being pinched by
unseen fingers.