Big cat sighting at Brockley ?

'I live in Brockley in SE4, London. Our garden backs onto undergrowth and the train line South East.

On Thursday night (24th March) my partner noticed a large black shape at the end of our garden making a strange growl as my domestic cat Peach was freaking out looking at it from the window. He went outside only for the creature to have gone rather quickly.

I returned home later on and opened the back door to the garden (It was the first nice evening we'd had) and I obviously startled the creature again and it ran away, clearing three or so garden fences in a matter of seconds. Very heavy footed, claws audible and the strength of the thing evident. We startle foxes and other cats all the time and none of them moved in the way this one did. It was remarkably quick and powerful.'

Rare blue butterfly in Sutton scuppers playground plans

Read more at THIS IS LOCAL LONDON

Black leopard seen twice at Anerley

Anerley, situated in the Bromley district, may well be the prowling ground of what the local press incorrectly dubbed 'the Palace puma'. Recently a ten-year old girl, whilst getting ready for school at 7:25 am, peered from her bedroom window and was shocked to see an enormous cat, black in colour, with a long, thick tail walking along a fence line. The girl saw the animal again a week or so later whilst in her mother's car. They drove into a parking area at 6:30 pm one evening, in the vicinity of their house, when the girl glimpsed the cat slink down a slope. She stated that the animal was bigger than a Labrador dog.

Owl pellet mistaken for 'big cat' scat near Crystal Palace, Winter 2010

A Seal Shot In The Thames

From THE FIELD magazine of January 3rd 1857 : A few days ago, the attendant on the boats at the Feathers, Wandsworth, shot a large seal in the Thames, near the above place. It is a beautiful specimen of the species, and is the only one of the kind that has been seen by anyone of the Thames fishermen above bridge. It measures four-feet in length, two-feet one-inch  in breadth, and is two-feet three-inches in girth. The fish may be seen at Mr H. Salter's, the Feather's Tavern, Wandsworth

Whales and other strange creatures in the River Thames

In 2011 my book Mystery Animals Of The British Isles: London will hopefully be published by CFZ Press. As a teaser for what I can only describe as the best book I’ve ever written, here are a few weird accounts of unusual animals in the River Thames.







From The Kentish Notebook by G. Howell of 1891 in reference to an appeal for whale sightings in the stretch of river, a chap named ‘Bookworm’ responds, ‘’Whales In The Thames (Sept. 12th 1891) – I can assure “T.C.U.” that the whale is no uncommon visitor to our River, for numerous records, both ancient and modern, testify to the fact of its appearance at different times. I have made a brief compilation, from various sources, of the discovery of whales and other monsters in the Thames, which may interest “T.C.U.”:






1457 – In this year a considerable commotion took place, caused by several whales in the river. After considerable trouble two of them were caught off Erith, together with a sword-fish, and a fish called a Mors Marina.


1642 – On July of this year a “terrible monster” was caught by “a fisherman near Wollage (Woolwich”, and afterwards exhibited at Westminster. A tract published at the time informs us that the monster “is like a toad, and may be called a Toad-Fish; but that which makes it a monster is, that it hath hands with fingers like a man, being neere five-foot long and three-feet over, the thicknesse of an ordinary man.”


1699 – On the twenty-sixth of March, after an extraordinary storm, there came up the Thames a whale 56-feet long.


1718 – On August 30, great excitement occurred among the waterside inhabitants of Gravesend, in consequence of a whale forty-feet long being captured just below the town.


1746 – On the 25th of July a young whale came up the river and was killed near Execution Dock, after having sunk three boats; it measured 18 feet in length.


1762 – In February a whale was caught in the Hope and after being chased by the boats, some time it was secured and killed by digging holes in it. It was fifty-four feet long and 14-feet broad, and was landed on the shore by Greendland Dock, near Deptford. No doubt the Watermen found plenty of employment, as an immense number of people visited it by land and water. It was computed that on the first day, Sunday, upwards of fifty thousand visitors inspected it.


1809 – “On the 25th March, a whale 75-feet long and 25-feet in circumference, was wounded and driven on shore off the Bligh Sands below Gravesend, by a pilot named Barnes. It weighed upwards of thirty tons. The Lord Mayor ordered it to be removed in a barge above the bridge, when it was exhibited at one shilling per head, until the officers of the admiralty claimed it as a droit, and forcibly took possession. The blubber was valued at one hundred and fifty pounds.”


1842 – In November a whale was caught off Deptford pier, 16 feet long weighting two tons. It was purchased by three individuals, and exhibited there for some time. It was afterwards shewn at the half Moon Inn, Boro’, where 2,000 persons paid for admission in one day. On being dissected, the skeleton was taken to the British Museum.


1849 – A whale 21-feet long, was taken in this year off Grays, in Essex.

Neil Arnold, in conjunction with Time Out magazine - An Autumn Monster Walk

For Halloween 2010 Time Out magazine ran an article on monster folklore around the capital. Neil Arnold was consulted and the magazine put togetehr a brief walk through the city streets to tie in with various locatiosn where monsters and strange creatures had been seen in the past. To find out more, read about it at TIME OUT