Ghosts · London

Parson Ford's Message

The Old Hummums, Covent Garden

Spooky: for older readers

One evening, at the Thrales' house in Streatham, James Boswell was looking at the prints pasted on the dining-room walls. One of them was Hogarth's <i>Midnight Modern Conversation</i>, a picture of a riotous drinking party, and among the drinkers was a parson. Boswell asked Dr Johnson what he knew of Parson Ford.

“Sir,” said Johnson, “he was my acquaintance and relation; my mother's nephew.” Ford, he said, was a clever man, and a wild one.

Boswell asked whether there wasn't a story of his ghost appearing.

“Sir, it was believed,” said Johnson. And he told it.

Ford had died at the Hummums, an old bath-house in Covent Garden. A waiter there had been away for some time, and came back knowing nothing about it. He went down to the cellar, and on his way he met Ford. He went down again, and met him a second time. When he came up, he asked the people of the house what Ford could be doing down there. They told him that Ford was dead.

The waiter fell ill with a fever and lay in bed for some time. When he got better, he said he had a message to deliver to some women from Ford. But he was not allowed to say what it was, or who they were.

He walked out. People followed him, but somewhere about St Paul's they lost him. When he came back, he said he had delivered the message, and that when they heard it, the women cried out, “Then we are all undone!”

Johnson never said who the women were, or what Ford's message was.

No plate yet. We are still looking for an old picture of this place.

What people said

  • “Irresistible.” Johnson said that Dr Pellet, “who was not a credulous man”, had looked into the story and found the evidence irresistible.
  • Mrs Johnson's visit. Johnson's wife went to the Hummums herself, he said, probably meaning to hear about Ford. At first the people there didn't want to tell her, but when she had talked to them, she came away sure it was true.
  • Johnson's verdict. “To be sure the man had a fever, and this vision may have been the beginning of it. But if the message to the women, and their behaviour upon it, were true as related, there was something supernatural. That rests upon his word, and there it remains.”

Other tellings

  • The earliest telling. James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), recording a conversation at Streatham. Ingram calls the story “slight, but it is famous”.
  • The riotous parson in Hogarth's picture was said to be Ford.

What the history says

The Hummums took their name from the Turkish word hamam, a bath. They stood in the south-east corner of the Covent Garden market-place, and later became two hotels, the Old and the New Hummums. Ingram, writing in 1884, says they had recently been pulled down.

Ford, Johnson's cousin, was a real clergyman. [TODO: Ford's dates from a reliable source]

Go and See

Where
Covent Garden Piazza, central London. The Hummums stood at the south-east corner of the old market-place. The pin marks the Piazza.
Access
Public square, open at all times.
Allow
A few minutes, or as long as you like in Covent Garden.
Families
A short, eerie mystery with nothing frightening to see. Fine for older children.

Visiting details checked 25 October 2026 with OpenStreetMap. Always check before you travel.

51.5118° N, 0.1226° W · Open in OpenStreetMap

Make a day of it

From our sister sites

Haunted Hotels UKLondon ghost bus tourFor grown-ups: a ghostly tour of London's haunted streets.The Name GeneratorsName a ghost of your ownPale ladies, grey monks and wild parsons.

Sources

  1. James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), in a conversation at the Thrales' house at Streatham. The earliest telling we have found. Project Gutenberg, volume 3.
  2. John H. Ingram, The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain (1884; illustrated edition 1897), “London: The Hummums”. Internet Archive.

This is a legend, told as people told it. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.