As our London Walking Tours make their way from the Tower of London and in to the wonderful warren of backstreets that exist nearby, we encounter a church that really does catch the eye of those who participate in our London walks.

The mark of history is certainly upon the ancient City church of All Hallows By the Tower. Through its doors have stepped the likes of Bishop Lancelot Andrews and William Penn, both of whom were christened here in 1555 and 1644 respectively. The infamous Judge Jeffries was married at the church in 1667, as was John Quincy Adams - later sixth President of the United States – in 1797. After the Great Fire of London (c1666), Samuel Pepys climbed to the top of its tower and, gazing down upon the smouldering remnants of the City below, declared it “the saddest sight of desolation.”

In December 1920 a choirmaster along with two choirboys had gone into the church to rehearse at 6pm one evening a few days before Christmas. They had been singing for around twenty minutes when they noticed and old lady standing about 8 feet away from them. So real did she appear that one of the boys walked over and placed a chair for her to sit on, the woman nodded her thanks and sat down. She was dressed, so the choirmaster later recalled, in old-fashioned clothing. Her hair was grey and her face had sallow features. But what struck him most about her was the intent look in her eyes. “They seemed to burn with a strange radiance… and were fixed on my face as if eagerly searching for something, or as if fascinated by our music.” Their strange visitor mystified the choirmaster. He had most certainly locked the door when they had entered, so how could she have got inside? Also how had she managed to approach their rehearsal room without any sound? He had heard no footsteps on the stone floor and, furthermore, the heavy, creaking doors double doors that led from the main body of the church had been silent since he and the choristers had passed through them. The suddenly, just as the practice concluded, the mysterious visitor vanished without trace. No sooner had she done so, than a strange scratching noise sounded from a corner of the room, “as if a cat was in the building and was trying to get out.” Suddenly one of the boys cried out in alarm ‘There it is sir! I saw a cat rush out of the room and go down towards the south aisle!’ They searched the church but could no find no trace whatsoever of wither the woman or the cat. Furthermore, when went to leave the building, the door was still locked.

Five years later, the choirmaster was standing in the church one Sunday morning when an old man approached him and told him that he though he knew the identity of the old woman. He explained how, around sixty years previously, he had been a choirboy at the church and that a somewhat eccentric lady organist had led the choir in those days. She was “passionately fond of …cats,” the old man told the choirmaster, and continued, “…cats used to follow her about, even in the streets…she used to give me pocket money for feeding them regularly. She was  “quite gone” on carols, and used to take us boys through the City lanes…singing them as well as in church.”

Is it possible that the former choir mistresses love of carols continued beyond the grave, and that it was her ghost that had appeared in the church on that December night? Certainly the description given by the old gentleman of her style of dress corresponded exactly with clothing worn by the apparition in the rehearsal room. Furthermore, reports of her appearances continued throughout the 1920’s and early 1930’s. Sadly - or happily, depending on how you view these things - she seems to have found lasting rest in recent years for many decades have passed without any reports of the ghostly old lady at All Hallows Church.