If you have ever wondered about the skeletons which lie beneath Crystal Palace Park then now might by your time to find out.

Tom Brown, 34, of Upper Norwood, has published his second novel this year called Strange Air which is all about Crystal Palace Park.

It is about the Victorian skeletons who are rumoured to be lurking beneath, trapped fully clothed in an abandoned railway carriage.

The novel is based around how they could have come to be there with a lot of history woven into the story as well. It also tells the magical story of a Victorian engineer called Thomas Webster Rammell.

Brown says: “My girlfriend and I were out walking one day, exploring the boarded-up tunnel entrances near Crystal Palace Park. She mentioned the myth of the buried skeletons in passing, and I was instantly hooked.

“ I traced the myth back to its source - the pneumatic railway trial that took place in the Palace grounds in 1864 - and began furiously researching everything to do with it. At the same time, I was falling in love with the atmosphere of Crystal Palace Park.

“There's something beautifully sad about the place - almost every square metre feels haunted by some ghost of the past, whether it's the Palace itself, the motor racing track, or the old concert bowl.

“Bit by bit, I realised that the story of the skeletons allowed me to merge these twin obsessions - bringing them together into one coherent tale, which did justice to both the railway history and the ghostly aura of the park.”

Strange Air – Tom Brown, £7.36, available from Amazon.co.uk and local booksellers including Crow on the Hill, Kirkdale Bookshop. Copies also available from Upper Norwood Joint Library.

 

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