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University College London is not only home to the body of famed social reformer Jeremy Bentham; It is said that his ghost also lives in the hospital. CHRISTINE MILLER explains.
Located on Euston Road in London, University College Hospital (UCH) has undergone extensive reconstruction and modernization since its original founding in 1906.
The current version of the hospital was founded in 2004 and coexisted with the historic one cruciform building which has built a reputation as a home for several entities, including famed social reformer and philosopher Jeremy Bentham.
Jeremy Bentham’s special decree: the ‘car image’
In a rather eccentric will, Bentham issued an unusual decree that his body should be preserved as a timeless ‘car statue’ after its earthly demise following the dissection.
Dr. Southwood Smith, a friend of Bentham’s who was charged with the task, did not have the level of skill his late friend might have hoped for, and so the head was deemed unfit for public viewing, at least for a while.
Despite this, Bentham’s presence at UCH remains, or at least it does part of his presence.
Seated regally in a vintage chair in the student center of University College Hospital, the skeletal form of the reformist, dressed in the clothes he once wore, is stuffed with straw, preserving his essence. However, his face has been replaced by an eerily lifelike wax replica that stares eerily out of the glass case.
But what about Bentham’s real head, I hear you ask?
The real object has survived the test of time and has been reunited with the body, at least for a period of time.
However, it managed to go on an adventure when some mischievous students decided to steal it. Fortunately it was returned quickly. But considering the chief’s escapade, it was decided to keep it safely away from further folly. Nowadays he only emerges from his safe resting place on special occasions.
It seems Jeremy Bentham’s corpse isn’t the only part of him living at University College Hospital.
There are indications that his ghost also lives nearby.
Bentham’s ethereal residence
According to an article published in The Psychic News in 1935, Dr. HJ Spenser, former director of UCS, has a bizarre encounter with Bentham’s ghost.
The story goes that Dr. Spenser was walking to his hospital apartment late one evening when he was abruptly alerted to the presence of loud approaching footsteps that echoed ominously down the hallway. The gait was strangely plain: a strange shuffling, one foot dragging behind the other, seemingly reluctantly.
With his curiosity fully aroused, the doctor carefully swung the door open, expecting to encounter the source of the disturbing sounds.
However, to his great surprise, there was no one in the hallway in front of him. Surprised but undeterred, Spenser closed the door behind him, only to find that the shuffling passage continued, this time in retreat, disappearing into the distance into the passage.
Far from being a one-time occurrence, the disturbing footstep became a regular nightly occurrence. It was always the same: the shuffling gait, which was very much like dragging one leg behind the other.
Struggling to make any sense of these inexplicable events, Spenser ventured an extraordinary explanation. He suggested that none other than the famous Jeremy Bentham, even from beyond the bounds of the grave, should continue to take a keen interest in the affairs of his former university. It’s an idea that’s both creepy and intriguing.
A few years later, the doctor discovered some evidence to support his claim. He discovered that Jeremy Bentham had indeed suffered from a condition in the later years of his life that caused him to drag his right foot, resulting in a characteristic shuffling gait.
It wasn’t just Dr. Spenser to whom it was known that Bentham showed himself. Just a few years ago, another staff member made a chilling introduction to the ghost.
As the UCL lecturer worked late into the night, the solitude of his workspace was shattered by an eerie sound: the rhythmic tapping of a stick against the floor. Initially faint and distant, the sound grew closer, prompting the man to stop his work and investigate the source of this sound.
To his horror, the figure of Jeremy Bentham stood before him, advancing steadily with each deliberate tap of his stick. The ghostly presence came so close that the man braced himself, fully expecting the apparition to force him to the ground.
However, that didn’t happen. Instead, the ghostly image dissolved into the air, leaving the man alone with his bewildered thoughts.
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