This week 30 years ago: Ghost invades Barnsbury Estate

A squatter forced a family to flee in terror from the Barnsbury Estate.

Barred doors and bailiffs could not get rid of the unauthorised occupant.

For the new neighbour in Thorpe House was believed to be a ghost of a former resident who lived and died there 40 years ago.

Mike Cook, an Islington Council social worker, explained: “The family had so much interference from the ghost that it caused them health problems – and they were subsequently moved because of it.”

The council found it impossible to let to families on the waiting list, as neighbours continued to see and hear signs of the “presence”.

The article was published on the day of Hallowe’en.