Ghost Stories for Christmas- Ghosts of Amen Court

Christmas time is here again, and I have delightful chunks of coal for all your players. At the intersection of Victorian Fiction and Christmas, lurk ghost stories. For December, we’re looking at dolorous hauntings of the British Isles and their weird, wonderful uses in role-playing games. As before, my primary source is “Gazetteer of British Scottish & Irish Ghosts” by Peter Underwood, a ghostly guidebook full of interesting facts and folklore ready to be plugged into a Victoriana scenario.

In the oldest part of London, between an institution devoted to saving man, and another for punishing him sits Amen Court. The solid brick back wall of the Old Bailey and Newgate Prison close off the west side, and on the east, north and south by houses for the canons of nearby St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The nearby prison provides this small open space with more than its share of hauntings. Just over the wall is Newgate's graveyard, a thin passage where the executed rot in lime under the flagstones. The stone walls bear their initials. This passage is infamous as “Dead Man’s Walk” for it connects the prison to the Old Baily where many inmates were condemned to die. Many witnesses claim to see shapeless shadowy, and hear clanking chains in this ghoulish corridor.

One legend says the shadow belongs to a black dog, connected to a scholar imprisoned in Newgate for sorcery. During the reign of King Henry III, a terrible famine in London brought starvation to the Newgate prisoners. In their feral desperation they killed and ate the chubby scholar. Soon after, a horrific black dog stalked the cannibalistic inmates in the halls. Supposedly, the dog killed the prisoners one by one, until the last few escaped the jail in desperation. Whether they escaped the hound is unknown.

The famous cat-burglar and escape artist, Jack Sheppard, broke out of Newgate Prison in 1724. He escaped his handcuffs, crawled up a chimney, removed a metal bar from the chimney, smashed open the ceiling, broke open six doors to the chapel of the prison, and made his way to the roof of an house next door, all while still in leg irons. After his recapture, Newgate temporarily held Sheppard again, before his execution at Tyburn.

Some nights, the ghost of Jack Sheppard returns to perform his famous last escape.

Adventure Ideas

Researching Amen Court reminds me why I set so many Victoriana adventures in London. You can find anything you want anywhere in its city limits if you go back far enough. History stacked on history everywhere, just ready to be adapted for a game.

The back wall of Newgate prison lines up with the western wall of the Roman settlement Londinium. With ancient foundations, this wall might imprison something far older than Newgate’s inmates.

Amen Court and its surrounding streets get their names from the prayers monks recited as they proceed to St. Paul’s Cathedral on Corpus Christi Day. On Paternoster Row, the monks prayed the Lord’s Prayer (The Pater Noster). As the procession turned at Amen Corner (From whence the court is named and connects Amen Court to Ave Maria Lane) their prayer ended, and began the Hail Mary as they walk Ave-Maria Lane. They finished their track on Ludgate saying the Credo until they approached St. Paul’s.
This ritualized track of holy processionals must have some otherworldly effect through the years.  The prayers of inmates astute enough to tap into it will be heard, but who or what is listening?

Amen court is the old location of the Royal College of Physicians before the Great Fire of London destroyed it in 1666. Might a few volumes of the college’s famous library lost in the fire lie hidden nearby? Ottoman medical compendiums, books annotated by John Dee, and dialogues of Greek philosophy could lie under the ground or hide in old walls.

If Jack Sheppard’s ghost performs his escape nightly, is it because his spirit is still trapped in Newgate. The players may have to help him escape one last time into eternity.

If an acquaintance or contact in Newgate is being stalked by a spectral black dog, he’ll need a place to hide. Can players keep him safe or will he have to be broken out?


That finishes out this series of spooky ideas, and 2016 as well. I hope you've had a Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year.