London Urban Legends (31 page)

More sightings followed. John Baroldi of the Watermans Arts Centre was quoted in the
Ealing Gazette
dated 15 March as saying that, ‘A woman came from the park along the street. She was in an awful state. She had seen a huge bird and was obviously rather shaken by it.’

Robert Rankin, who was poet-in-residence at the Watermans Art Centre at the time, filled in some detail:

It has been a local myth for years. There were sightings of the ones prior to the last year. Previous ones go back to at least before the Second World War. A year ago a jogger called John Olssen reported seeing the bird as he was running by the arts centre. And a woman saw it from the top of a bus.

Miss Angela Keyhoe of Hanwell was on the top deck of the bus. She told the
Ealing
Gazette
she was on a No. 65 bus near the art centre when she saw the griffin perched on top of a gasometer.

That griffins haunt Brentford may not be such a surprise: Fuller’s, the local brewery, has a Griffin as a logo and they brew at the Griffin Brewery; there is a Griffin pub and Brentford Football Club’s ground is Griffin Park. With the beer associations to this story it seemed fitting to meet someone who knew of the griffin in a pub but I chose one a safe distance from the Thames and Brentford, the Hermit’s Cave in Camberwell.

Over pints of London-brewed ale, I learned that Robert Rankin and other locals had planned a festival in the Watermans Art Centre for 13 July 1985. This unfortunately coincided with Live Aid taking place at Wembley Stadium. To rustle up some publicity for the event, Rankin and friends, including a journalist or two, cooked up the story of a griffin being seen around the arts centre. All of the main witnesses were in on the joke; Robert Rankin wrote a historical back story for the griffin and let the idea of the creature loose. But then a strange thing happened. Brentfordians loved the idea of the griffin and took it to their hearts. The letter to the May 1998 edition of the
Fortean Times
(
See
page 83) did not, as far as my contact knew, have links with the original jape. When investigating the griffin myth for a lecture in 2003, John Rimmer, of
Magonia
magazine, went into the local pubs and the drinkers were keen to talk to him about ‘their’ griffin.

‘Is the Brentford Griffin folklore or fakelore?’ I asked my contact.

‘It started out as fakelore,’ he said, ‘but it has become a part of Brentford folklore.’

T
HIS BOOK IS
made up of countless references from websites, magazine articles and newspaper stories. Where possible I have quoted the source in the text. Urban legend research is an ongoing joy and I am keen to discuss any ideas about any of the urban legends discussed in this book and others. Please contact me on [email protected] or at the blog
http://living-lore.blogspot.co.uk.

Arnold, Catharine,
Necropolis: London and Its Dead
(London: Pocket Books, 2007)

Arnold, Neil,
Kent Urban Legends: The Phantom Hitch-Hiker and Other Stories
(Stroud: The History Press, 2013)

Barber, Mark,
Urban Legends: An Investigation into the Truth Behind the Legends
(Chichester: Summersdale, 2007)

Bard, Robert,
Graveyard London: Lost and Forgotten Burial Grounds
(London: Historical Publications, 2008)

Barnett, Richard,
Sick City: Two Thousand Years of Life and Death in London
(London: Strange Attractor Press, 2008)

Bell, Karl,
The Legend of Spring-heeled Jack: Victorian Urban Folklore and Popular Cultures
(Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2012)

Bloom, Clive,
Violent London: 2000 Years of Riots, Rebels and Revolts
(Pan Macmillan: London, 2004)

Bolton, Tom,
London’s Lost Rivers: A Walker’s Guide
(London: Strange Attractor Press, 2011)

Brewer, E. Cobham,
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
(London: Cassell, 1909)

Brooks, J. A.,
Ghosts of London
(Norwich: Jarrold, 1995)

Brunvand, Jan Harold,
The Choking Doberman and Other ‘New’ Urban Legends
(London: W.W. Norton & Co., 1986)

––––––,
The Mexican Pet: More ‘New’ Urban Legends and Some Old Favorites
(London: Penguin, 1986)

––––––,
Curses! Broiled Again! The Hottest Urban Legends Going
(London: W.W. Norton & Co., 1989)

––––––,
The Vanishing Hitchhiker: Urban Legends and their Meanings
(London: Pan Books, 1983)

Bucazacki, Stefan,
Fauna Britannica
(London: Hamlyn, 2002)

Clark, James,
Haunted London
(Stroud: Tempus Publishing, 2007)

––––––,
Mysterious Mitcham
(Mitcham: Shadowtime Publishing, 2002)

Clayton, Antony,
The Folklore of London
(London: Historical Publications, 2008)

Dale, Rodney,
The Tumour in the Whale
(London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., 1978)

––––––,
The Wordsworth Book of Urban Legends
(Hertfordshire: Wordsworth War, 2005)

––––––,
It’s True … It Happened to a Friend
(London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., 1984)

Fort, Charles,
Lo!
(London: John Brown, 1997)

Glinert, Ed,
The London Compendium
(London: Penguin, 2004)

Halliday, Stephen,
Amazing and Extraordinary London Underground Facts
(Cincinnati: David & Charles, 2009)

Hart, Edward J.,
101 London Oddities
(Sussex: J. R. Stallwood Publications, 1994)

Hayward, James,
Myths and Legends of the First World War
(Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2002)

––––––,
Myths and Legends of the Second World War
(Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2003)

Ibrahim, Mecca,
One Stop Short of Barking: Uncovering the London Underground
(London: New Holland, 2004)

Jackson, Peter,
London Explorer
(London: Associated Newspapers, 1953)

––––––,
London is Stranger than Fiction
(London: Associated Newspaper, 1951)

Jacobson, David J.,
The Affairs of Dame Rumour
(New York: Rinehart, 1948)

Jenkins, Alan C.,
Wildlife in the City
(Exeter: Webb & Bower, 1982)

Jones, Christopher,
Subterranean Southwark
(London: Past Tense, 2003)

Kempe, David,
Living Underground
(London: Herbert Press, 1988)

Kent, William,
The Lost Treasures of London
(London: Phoenix House, 1947)

––––––,
Walks in London
(London: Staples Press, 1951)

Long, Roger,
Historic Inns along the River Thames
(Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2006)

Pyeatt, Samuel Menefee, ‘Megalithic Movement: A Study of Thresholds in Time’ in Davidson, Hilda Ellis (ed.),
Boundaries & Thresholds: Papers from a Colloquium of The Katharine Briggs Club
(Stroud: The Thimble Press, 1993)

Roberts, Chris,
Football Voodoo: Magic, Superstition and Religion in the Beautiful Game
(London: F&M Publications, 2010)

Rogers, Cyril H.,
Parrots
(London: W&G Foyle, 1958)

Roud, Steve,
London Lore
(London: Random House, 2008)

Screeton, Paul,
Mars Bars & Mushy Peas: Urban Legends and the Cult of Celebrity
(Loughborough: Heart of Albion, 2008)

Smith, Paul,
The Book of Nasty Legends
(London: Routledge & Kegan, 1983)

––––––,
The Book of Nastier Legends
(London: Routledge & Kegan, 1986)

Smith, Stephen,
Underground London: Travels Beneath the City Streets
(London: Abacus, 2007)

Swinnerton, Jo (ed.),
The London Companion
(London: Robson, 2004)

Thornbury, Walter,
Old and New London Volume II
(London: Cassell Petter & Galpin, 1878)

Walford, Edward,
London Recollected: Its History, Lore and Legend
(London: Alderman, 1985)

White, Jerry,
Rothschild Buildings: Life in an East End Tenement Block 1887–1920
(London: Pimlico, 2003)

Willey, Russ,
Brewer’s Dictionary of London Phrase & Fable
(London: Chambers, 2009)

A Selection of Magazines and Websites

Fortean Times
–
www.forteantimes.com

FLS News (Folklore Society) –
www.folklore-society.com

Magonia
–
www.magonia.haaan.com

The Unknown

Urban Legend Resource (Snopes) –
www.snopes.com

Alexander McQueen obituary:
www.news.bbc.co.uk

Design Museum:
www.designmuseum.org

‘Dressed To Thrill’:
www.newyorker.com

‘Porno magazines found in Queen’s Car’:
www.thefreelibrary.com

‘Secrets and lies: Shroud Origins of Giant Swastika’:
www.msgboard.snopes.com

‘We Are Not Amused: Jag Man’s Swastika Prank Backfires’:
www.thefreelibrary.com

Argyll Arms:
www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk

King and Tinker pub:
www.kingandtinker.co.uk/

Michael Jackson at the Montague Arms:
www.transpont.blogspot.co.uk

The Old Watling:
www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/

Travel UK: ‘Where Rivals Feared to Tread’:
www.independent.co.uk

Wimbledon tunnel:
www.thisislocallondon.co.uk

‘Suicidal Architects’ p.7 FLS News, No.37, June 2002

‘Suicidal Sculptor’ p.13 FLS News, No.57, February 2009

Eagle Pillar:
www.geograph.org.uk

The Chain Bridge Lions:
www.bridgesofbudapest.com

The Seriousness of Mormon Humour:
www.thejazzy.tripod.com

The Devils of Cornhill:
www.shadyoldlady.com

First published in 2013

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire,
GL
5 2
QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved

© Scott Wood, 2013

The right of Scott Wood to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN
978 0 7524 9380 0

Original typesetting by The History Press

Ebook compilation by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk