by Scott Wood
People began to look into these websites and films, and the blog Transpontine, which takes an interest in south London matters, summarised the gaps in the angel story. The Slovakian Television logo was incorrect and the image used as a station ident was a picture of St Basil’s in Moscow – the most direct piece of evidence was faked. All the websites were created in 2006 and ceased later that year, and there is no previous mention of the angel before that time. Samuel Pepys did not write about the Thames Angel. This was an etching on the Angel of Promise site of the construction of the Embankment with the angel hovering over it with a suspicious white outline around it. Transpontine found a sharper version of the image on Wikipedia, without the angel – another fake. As early as November 2006, contributors on a James Randi webpage – Randi being the nemesis of those making paranormal claims – looked into the source code of the websites and found in the biggest site, Angel of Promise, the phrase ‘Global angels’. The Global Angels Foundation is a charity that aids impoverished and exploited children across the world, founded by Molly Bedingfield in 2004. Molly is the mother of pop stars Natasha and Daniel Bedingfield, and the charity finances its many good works in a number of ways, including sponsoring celebrities in strange challenges. The most chilling I have seen was one in which Bear Grylls was to row 22 miles down the Thames in a bath tub. David Grant, who supposedly saw the angel on film, was a sponsor of Global Angels and hosted their launch at Coutts Banks. All of the contemporary photographs of the angel look like a fuzzy white version of the Global Angels logo.
I have attempted to contact them to discuss the Thames Angel website and their possible connection to it, but so far they have been too busy to respond to my emails and telephone messages.
The Brentford Griffin
Further west along the Thames is Brentford, famed for its football club, Fuller’s Brewery and the ‘Brentford Triangle’ novels by Robert Rankin. Brentford’s other claim to fame is another mythical winged creature, the griffin. Griffins are mythical beasts of a higher order: they have the body of a lion but the head and wings of an eagle-like raptor. On the scale of London’s mystery animals, the origin of its parakeets is a diversion and the panthers, pumas and bears are an absurd but romantic idea. The Brentford Griffin, however, is such a strange and ridiculous idea it is a surprise that people even consider it.
Like the Thames Angel, the Griffin has a history. In a letter to the Fortean Times, Issue 110, in May 1998, Martin Collins claimed to have heard stories of the griffin while at school in the 1950s. A family of griffins survived on Brentford Eyot (or Ait), after the first griffin was brought to Brentford by Nell Gwynn who had housed it in The Butts, Brentford. She had been given the griffin as a gift from Charles II. Somehow the griffin fell into the River Brent and was washed away to Brentford Eyot where it lived incognito after being presumed dead. Sir John Banks, a botanist who travelled with Captain Cook, brought another griffin to Brentford, where it was kept in a pagoda in Kew Gardens. After eventually escaping and mating with the first griffin living in the eyot, the griffin dynasty of Brentford was established until at least the 1980s. In the magazine Magonia, dated 19 May 1985, an article on Robert Rankin’s ‘Great Mysteries of Brentford No. 23: the Gryphon’ stated that:
Reports of gryphons [sic] crop up with startling regularity throughout the pages of history. Dr Johnson records one he saw at Brentford’s bull Fair: ‘… it was somewhat smaller than I had expected, but the proprietor assured me it was ‘yet young’ — it had the body of a lion cub and the neck, head and forelegs of a eagle … curiously formed wings issued from its shoulders.
Johnson was in no doubt that the beast lived ‘and was not the product of the gypsies’ craft’. No further mention of the gryphon is made in his writings and one wonders what became of it. Possibly it was the same live specimen that my [RR] father saw at Olympia before the war. He was informed it was several hundred years old and was shown old showman’s posters as proof.’
The griffin made its first contemporary appearance in March 1983. The Ealing Guardian 14 March 1983 had the front-page headline ‘GRIFFIN AT LARGE – Mystery Flying Beast Sighted in Brentford’ after one Kevin Chippendale saw the creature.
Mr Chippendale, of Brook Road South, claims to have seen the animal twice, both times in the gasworks:
The first time was last summer when I saw something flying low across the ground in the gasworks. At first I thought it might be a plane, but it was too low and made no noise. I was intrigued to know what it was and as I walked past the Griffin pub realised it looked like the animal on the sign. I saw it again a couple of weeks later in exactly the same place.
More sightings followed. John Baroldi of the Watermans Arts Centre was quoted in the Ealing Gazette dated 15 March as saying that, ‘A woman came from the park along the street. She was in an awful state. She had seen a huge bird and was obviously rather shaken by it.’
Robert Rankin, who was poet-in-residence at the Watermans Art Centre at the time, filled in some detail:
It has been a local myth for years. There were sightings of the ones prior to the last year. Previous ones go back to at least before the Second World War. A year ago a jogger called John Olssen reported seeing the bird as he was running by the arts centre. And a woman saw it from the top of a bus.
Miss Angela Keyhoe of Hanwell was on the top deck of the bus. She told the Ealing Gazette she was on a No. 65 bus near the art centre when she saw the griffin perched on top of a gasometer.
That griffins haunt Brentford may not be such a surprise: Fuller’s, the local brewery, has a Griffin as a logo and they brew at the Griffin Brewery; there is a Griffin pub and Brentford Football Club’s ground is Griffin Park. With the beer associations to this story it seemed fitting to meet someone who knew of the griffin in a pub but I chose one a safe distance from the Thames and Brentford, the Hermit’s Cave in Camberwell.
Over pints of London-brewed ale, I learned that Robert Rankin and other locals had planned a festival in the Watermans Art Centre for 13 July 1985. This unfortunately coincided with Live Aid taking place at Wembley Stadium. To rustle up some publicity for the event, Rankin and friends, including a journalist or two, cooked up the story of a griffin being seen around the arts centre. All of the main witnesses were in on the joke; Robert Rankin wrote a historical back story for the griffin and let the idea of the creature loose. But then a strange thing happened. Brentfordians loved the idea of the griffin and took it to their hearts. The letter to the May 1998 edition of the Fortean Times (See page 83) did not, as far as my contact knew, have links with the original jape. When investigating the griffin myth for a lecture in 2003, John Rimmer, of Magonia magazine, went into the local pubs and the drinkers were keen to talk to him about ‘their’ griffin.
‘Is the Brentford Griffin folklore or fakelore?’ I asked my contact.
‘It started out as fakelore,’ he said, ‘but it has become a part of Brentford folklore.’
BIBLIOGRAPHY
THIS BOOK IS made up of countless references from websites, magazine articles and newspaper stories. Where possible I have quoted the source in the text. Urban legend research is an ongoing joy and I am keen to discuss any ideas about any of the urban legends discussed in this book and others. Please contact me on [email protected] or at the blog http://living-lore.blogspot.co.uk.
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A Selection of Magazines and Websites
Fortean Times – www.forteantimes.com
FLS News (Folklore Society) – www.folklore-society.com
Magonia – www.magonia.haaan.com
The Unknown
Urban Legend Resource (Snopes) – www.snopes.com
Alexander McQueen obituary: www.news.bbc.co.uk
Design Museum: www.designmuseum.org
‘Dressed To Thrill’: www.newyorker.com
‘Porno magazines found in Queen’s Car’: www.thefreelibrary.com
‘Secrets and lies: Shroud Origins of Giant Swastika’: www.msgboard.snopes.com
‘We Are Not Amused: Jag Man’s Swastika Prank Backfires’: www.thefreelibrary.com
Argyll Arms: www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk
King and Tinker pub: www.kingandtinker.co.uk/
Michael Jackson at the Montague Arms: www.transpont.blogspot.co.uk
The Old Watling: www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/
Travel UK: ‘Where Rivals Feared to Tread’: www.independent.co.uk
Wimbledon tunnel: www.thisislocallondon.co.uk
‘Suicidal Architects’ p.7 FLS News, No.37, June 2002
‘Suicidal Sculptor’ p.13 FLS News, No.57, February 2009
Eagle Pillar: www.geograph.org.uk
The Chain Bridge Lions: www.bridgesofbudapest.com
The Seriousness of Mormon Humour: www.thejazzy.tripod.com
The Devils of Cornhill: www.shadyoldlady.com
COPYRIGHT
First published in 2013
The History Press
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This ebook edition first published in 2013
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© Scott Wood, 2013
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