Lambeth Fantastical - December 2025
The Old House in Vauxhall Walk
A Lambeth Ghost Story for Christmas
Christmas is on the way. One of the traditions linked to the season is the Christmas ghost story. The BBC's 'Ghost Story for Christmas', which first began in the 1970s and has recently been revived has immortalised spooky stories by Victorian writers such as Dickens and MR James. Last year's outing was an adaptation by Mark Gatiss of Lambeth born, Edith Nesbit's, 'Mansize in Marble'. But Lambeth doesn't only lay claim to a writer of ghost stories, it has it's very own ghost story, set in Vauxhall.
Back in September 2025 a blue plaque was unveiled at Carrickfergus Public Library in honour of the Victorian author, Charlotte Ridell, who was born in the Northern Irish town on the 30th of September 1832. Her maiden name was Charlotte Cowan. The Cowan's were initially considered quite well to do. Her father, James, was the High Sherriff of County Antirim. However, when the family fell on hard times she moved to London where she met and married Joseph Riddell, a civil engineer and unsuccessful inventor.
Her ambition to become an author came to fruition with the publication in 1858 of her first novel 'The Moors and the Fens'. She went on to author over fifty books and became the co-proprieteress of St James's Magazine. She was also a prolific writer of scary ghost stories. Five of her novels had supernatural themes. And in 1882 she authored Lambeth's very own Christmas ghost story 'The Old House in Vauxhall Walk'.
Vauxhall Walk leads from Vauxhall Gardens toward Black Prince Road. Today Vauxall Walk has a literary connection with well known children's publisher Walker Books having had their headquarters there since the 1980s. A century earlier, back the 1880s, as well as being a residential road, Vauxhall Walk was home to the Albert Glass Works, a mineral water factory, and a coach maker. Riddell had clearly visited the locale when researching the story. She speaks of a damp, keen wind blowing down the cross streets that lead from the Thames and of fumes from the gas works at the Oval seeming to fall with the rain.
Her desription of the old house includes a reference to two famous Lambeth families. She describes, an old, old house which speaks of the original owner who lived there long before the Tradescants and Ashmoles, and had been asleep far longer than they had been buried in St Mary's churchyard near Lambeth Palace.
The story has a great opening line 'Houseless - homeless - hopeless!' which immediately draws you in, wondering who could be in such dire circumstances and what tragedy has befallen them.
The plot centres on bereft young man, Graham Coulton, who has had a terrible fall out with his father, a wealthy naval admiral. We are told that, as a consequence, he is out on the streets in inclement December weather without a hat or overcoat. Whilst wandering along Vauxhall Walk looking for a place to stay on this cold, damp evening a few days before Christmas he runs into William, one of his father's former house servants. William has been renting an entire house in Vauxhall Walk and is the process of moving out. Taking pity on his former employer's son William makes arrangements for Coulton to stay in the vacated house for next few days. It is only then that Coulton discovers that the house has proven difficult to rent because it is reputed to be haunted, the main reason William's wife is no longer prepared to live there.
As Christmas approaches Coulton encounters the ghosts of the old house. Their first manifestation is in his nightmares, which then give way to frightening paranormal events. As always in such stories there is a history behind the old house and reason for the manifestation of the ghosts that haunt its fusty rooms. The haunting may well ultimately turn out to beneficial to Coulton. But I am not going to give the plot away.
Charlotte Riddell died in Ashford in Kent in September 1906. She left behind a legacy of atmospheric and highly influentual ghost stories, including 'The Old House in Vauxall Walk', which have stood the test of time and continue to haunt us as reprints in collections and anthologies still available 120 years after her death.
If you'd like to join me exporing the history of horror in the theatre and cinema my next guided walk sets off from Charing Cross at 6pm on Friday 12th December. A good prelude if you are going for Christmas meal in the west end or planning to see the lights. It ends near Shaftesbury Ave. So you be in the heart of theatreland and a short walk from Oxford Street or Covent Garden by 7.30pm. You can use the code David10 for a 10% discount.
I'm also giving an online talk for Rest Less on Monday 29th December at 2pm on Zoom which will feature Charlotte Riddell and other Victorian women authors who wrote Christmas ghost stories.
You can book here.
Finally, if you are looking for a stocking filler for someone who likes a bit of horror, my new novel 'The Hurdy Gurdy Man' has just been published by Nightmare Press.
Have Yourself a Creepy Little Christmas!
See you in 2026 for more Lambeth Fantastical tales.
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