Old Mary

The Legend

She appears near the top of the stairs, an aged woman with a savage look on her face. Staff who have encountered her describe a figure dressed in minimal clothing, her expression twisted with something between rage and despair. This is Old Mary, the resident ghost of the Fox Connaught, and her presence remains as unsettling today as it was when the first reports emerged decades ago.

The History

The building now known as the Fox Connaught opened in 1881 as the Connaught Tavern, a dockside pub serving passengers and workers from the nearby Victoria Docks. The Grade II listed Victorian structure has served Newham for over 140 years, its function shifting with the times but its most permanent resident remaining unchanged.

Old Mary was the aunt of a previous landlord. The precise date of her death remains unrecorded in official documents, but the manner is consistent across all accounts: she took her own life in a second-floor room. Whether driven by illness, grief, or circumstances lost to time, she ended her life within these walls. She never left.

Some accounts describe her as semi-mad, suggesting mental instability preceded her death. Others focus on the violence of her apparition, noting a viciousness in her manner that persists beyond death.

The Hauntings

The activity at the Fox Connaught goes beyond simple sightings. Beds and mattresses in the upstairs rooms have moved on their own, shifting position when no living person was present. Blood-curdling screams have echoed through the upper floors, sudden and sharp, with no source ever identified.

Dogs brought into the building by staff or visitors refuse to enter certain upstairs rooms. Animals stand at thresholds, hackles raised, unwilling to cross into spaces that appear empty to human eyes.

The ghost herself appears most frequently near the top of the stairs leading to the second floor. Witnesses describe an aged woman, semi-clad, with an expression of savage intensity. She does not fade gently or retreat when noticed. At least one staff member fled the building in terror after an encounter.

Witness Accounts

Staff testimonials paint a consistent picture across the years. One employee encountered the apparition so suddenly and with such force that they ran from the premises immediately, refusing to return to the upper floors alone.

The descriptions remain remarkably stable: an older woman, partially dressed, with an aggressive or savage demeanour. She has been spotted in the attic, in the second-floor room where she died, and standing at the top of the staircase as if waiting.

Multiple witnesses have reported the screams independently, describing them as coming from nowhere and everywhere at once, cutting through the ordinary sounds of the pub below.

Investigation and Evidence

No formal televised paranormal investigations have been conducted at the Fox Connaught. The evidence exists in accumulated testimony: staff accounts passed down through generations of publicans, the consistent refusal of animals to enter certain spaces, the physical disturbance of furniture in locked rooms.

Paranormal researchers have documented the haunting through sites including Mysterious Britain and The Shady Old Lady archives. The accounts they have collected corroborate one another, describing the same figure, the same locations, the same aggressive energy.

The building’s history as a working dockside tavern means records from its early decades are sparse. Old Mary exists in the gap between documented history and persistent local knowledge, her story preserved not in parish registers but in the memories of those who have worked beneath her shadow.

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This ghost story is part of the haunted history of Fox Connaught. Book a stay to experience the paranormal atmosphere for yourself.