Queen's House — the Tulip Stairs

OVERVIEW

The first classical building in England, designed by Inigo Jones for Anne of Denmark and finished for Henrietta Maria in 1635, on the site of the old Greenwich Palace; now part of Royal Museums Greenwich and a gallery of the museum's paintings. The Tulip Stairs, the first geometric self-supporting spiral staircase in Britain, are the subject of the museum's own page on the Queen's House ghost.

HISTORY

On 19 June 1966 a retired Canadian clergyman, the Reverend Ralph Hardy, photographed the empty staircase; the developed frame showed a hooded figure, hands on the rail, climbing after what looks like a second figure. The couple insisted no one had been on the stairs, and the museum says an investigation afterwards found no definitive rational explanation. Seven members of the Ghost Club kept a vigil and séance in the house on 24 June 1967 and recorded nothing conclusive.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

The photograph is the tradition; staff have reported footsteps and a figure on the stairs since. The museum publishes the picture and tells the story itself, which is why it is here; it does not claim to know what it shows.

VISITING

Open daily, free. The Tulip Stairs can be climbed.