L: Hello again, and welcome back to Britain under the microscope. Hello Anlan.
A: Hello everybody.
L: So what are we going to talk about today?
A: Today, as we are coming to the end of Chinese New Year, here in Beijing, there are lots of lights still along the streets. And also in my hometown of London, some of you might have seen the Chinese New Year parade.
L: Oh, yeah. And to follow the square.
A: Yeah. And there were Chinese lanterns and bright lights all around central London. But today I wanna take you away from those bright lights; I wanna take you into those parts of London that not many tourists actually see, the dark corners, the shadows.
L: That's giving me goose bumps.
A: After absolutely gives me good bumps. I used to be a tour guide in central London, and I would take tour groups around these places because in London you will never far away from history. At night history sometimes finds you.
L: Are we talking about something super natural?
A: Today I wanna tell you a few stories. I wanna tell you some of the ghost stories.
L: That's good. When I was in London I really wanted to go on those ghost tours.
A: They're very popular. Some of you who might have gone to London might have gone on tours, you seen the lights, you seen all the attractions. But today we're going to look at what's behind those attractions, the history that you can still see and in some cases comes back, comes alive.
L: Ok. I'm super intrigued right now. What are these stories?
A: So the first story I wanna tell you about is a place called the Langham Hotel.
L: Langham Hotel. And where is that in London exactly?
A: It's close to Oxford Circus.
L: It's quite very central.
A: Very very central. And it's close to the BBC main office. And the Langham Hotel was one of the oldest luxury hotels in London. In Sherlock Holmes' stories some of it takes place in the Langham Hotel.
L: Oh, in Sherlock Holmes.
A: And of course such an old building has lots of secrets, has a few ghosts.
L: A few ghosts.
A: But today I'm gonna focus on one particular ghost, the ghost of Room 333.
L: Room 333.
A: In this room a Victorian doctor was said to murder his wife, and he killed himself when they were on honey moon at the hotel.
L: There was in Victorian era.
A: Yeah, the Victorian era is the 90th century. And this doctor apparently still haunts this hotel room.
L: Haunts, usually means a ghost that lingers or controls a certain place.
A: Yes.
L: So it's called haunting or haunted place.
A: Yes, a ghost haunts a room. The room is haunted. And this happened in 1973 in October. A BBC journalist he woke in the middle of night and saw a ghost at the end of his bed, dressed in 90 century clothes so it has a top hat, a white shirt, a black suit. The journalist was terrified and asked the ghost who he was and what he wanted. The man in bed was shaking with fear and the ghost became angry, stretch down his arms and began to approach the journalist in the bed. Naturally, the journalist ran away.
L: Lucky that he escaped.
A: And this hotel room still sees this ghost every so often. Hotel staffs sometimes refuse to go to that floor, the third floor or going to that room and a woman in the middle of the night checked out over the hotel because staying in room 333 something shook her out of bed.
L: Well, so is the room still there?
A: It's still there. You can still rent it.
L: That must be really popular for people who are into ghost stories then.
A: Oh, if you are into ghost stories, yes, but I still think there is something in that room and a lot of people try to avoid it if they can.
L: Ok, that's the Langham Hotel.
A: So…
L: Any other stories?
A: So the next one is a rather sad story. It's about a tube station.
L: Underground station.
A: Yeah, called Bethnal Green in the east end of London. East end of London was normally the poorer part of London. The Bethnal Green tube station during the Second World War there was an air raid test.
L: Air raid是空袭。So it wasn't a real air raid. It's a test. It's a trial.
A: It was a test. And in those days to escape the bombing when the Nazis bombed London, people had to shelter in the underground.
A: So when the people heard the air raid sirens, people naturally rush into the station. And it was fine people were moving downstairs very carefully until someone tripped on the stairs.
A: And people began to panic and crush began to happen. In the end, 173 people died.
L: In the crush?
A: In the crush, 126 of them were women and children
L: That's such a heart breaking story.

A: And it was only a test. It was not a real air raid and people still say at the station, you can still hear late at night, cries and screaming and also the sound of running and footsteps.
L: It's probably people who died in that crush
A: So are people saying.
L: Sad and really creepy.
A: So let's move to find maybe a bit of happier ghost story.
L: A happy ghost story
A: Well, partly happy
L: Ok.
A: Now let's move on to talk about the theatre Royal Drury Lane. Now in the last show we talked about the west end we talked about the theatres.
L: Ah, yes, Drury Lane is a road in the theater lane.
A: And the theater Royal is the oldest still existing theatre in London.
L: It's still working, still functioning.
A: Still functioning and it's one of the top theatres in London. There are actually some ghosts in this building as well, but the most famous is the man in grey.
L: Man in grey?
A: Well, the man in grey is dressed in 18th century grey clothes, he has a wig and a three cornered hat
L: All of your ghosts are very historical.
A: Well, ghosts generally are historical. I can't think of any other better example of being historical than being a ghost.
L: Ok, carry on.
A: Now it's a mystery of who this man is. In the 1870s, they say they found a skeleton of a man in a little room in the theatre and it had dagger.
L: A dagger is a knife
A: Yes.
L: So he has been stabbed to death.
A: Yes, the dagger in his ribs and he was hidden in this room for at least 200 years.
L: And nobody found him?
A: Nobody found him, but you will think that this ghost would be quite scary and people would be scared of him. Actually the actors like this ghost.
L: Why?
A: That's because he always haunts the upper circle, the very top of the theatre.
A: And it's said that if this ghost appears it means that the show that is performing in the theatre will be a success.
L: Ah, so the ghost in some way is kind of like a mascot.
A: It's a good omen.
A: So actors when they start a new show they always look very carefully for this ghost. Because if you can see the ghost then it's gonna be a successful show.
L: Ok, that's certainly a nicer spin on the ghosts'story.
A: These are just a few of the ghost stories.
L: I am sure with such a long history, London probably has so many other ghosts' stories in other old buildings that are equally historical.
A: There are loads and loads of famous ghosts' stories. And many of them you can find online as well lots of these are written down in English. So if you are interested, go online and see if you can find some of the other stories.
L: Do people in London still believe that they truly exist or is it just a story?
A: It's hard to say. Some people say that no such thing as ghosts, but personally I think a city as old as London, all the people that lived, worked, played and died there, there must be something, some memory of them.
L: That's a nice way of putting it. Same as in Beijing, we have our own share of ghosts' stories in super natural happening.
A: So, with these stories whether or not they are true it's always good to think about the history behind a place; it's always good to think about all those people that walk those same streets as you do when you are travelling through London.
L: And some parts of them are probably still there?
A: Absolutely.
L: That's the end of today's show more on Britain in our next show. Many of you have mentioned that you enjoyed this particular segment "Britain under the microscope", so we are going to make more of this segment in the New Year.
A: Absolutely, I can't wait.
L: See you next time, bye.
A: Bye.

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