The next time you walk down a London street and suddenly sense a drop in temperature, stop. Is it really the wind you can hear whistling? Are you sure it’s the weather chilling your bones? Or is it something else? Something…haunting?

A 2009 survey found 40% of the British public believe in ghosts. This rises to 50% in London. Why is there a difference? Is the capital more ghostly? If so, which parts?

Let’s start in East London, home of Jack the Ripper. Responsible for at least 11 murders between 1888 and 1891, the brutal serial killer was never caught. Does this mean his ghost or those of his victims still roam the area?

In Spitalfields, close to where Jack the Ripper stalked his victims, was a mass burial site. It was dug in the mid-1300s, to cater for all those who died when the Black Death hit London. The pandemic had already swept through Europe, killing 30-60% of its inhabitants along the way. At its peak, “more than 200 corpses were buried almost day”.

Up in Hackney, Sutton House is the oldest residential property in the borough. Here, “disembodied voices emanate from empty rooms”.

Near Clerkenwell, “the ghost of a red-haired man appears” among drinkers in the Sutton Arms pub. Over in Islington, Charterhouse Square is reportedly another former mass grave; the site of up to 50,000 Black Death victims. At The Islington Company we are hoping that these ghosts won't haunt us while we work. Tales of “ghostly monks and the ghost of a nobleman” who is said to walk around with his head tucked under his arm, have been described. Don't let these stories put you off renting a property in Islington though, you will most likely have to search quite hard for these supernatural beings.

So what does this mean? Are there more ghosts in London? East and North London does seem to have its fair share…

Perhaps we should just remember the words of Richard Jones, ghostwalker, author and expert on the supernatural: “In London, the dead far outweigh the living.”