I had a house in London It was quite old circ1835. In the basement the plaster was cracking a falling off of the one wall facing the front garden. We had to remove it to treat it with a damp proof membrane. Removing the plaster to bare brick revealed a clumsily bricked up doorway. We opened it up to see what was behind it.

It was a small room with a rough wooden bed all rotted away only the frame remaining and a upright chair.with the back broken and a kind of tailors dummy stood on a unplained wooden frame.

Mildewed newspaper cuttings where on the chair, most to badly rotted away but the ones in the center could be read. They were ink pictures of women with names like. "Florrie Corrigan the Irish rose" and "Irene Atkins the Clapham nightingale" Some had their faces disfigured or slashed. Some had dripping wounds and cuts drawn on them. Most had a big furry vagina drawn on.

My wife was fairly freaked and had a hippie chap come and pray / chant in the room to remove bad spirits.

It was nowhere near Jack the rippers haunts BTW, Ealing. A very respectable area.

Oh, the tailors dummy had the heart and kidneys drawn on it. All ripped and holed.

edit: We sold it soon after. My wife make the big decisions in our house, altho I have veto power. She says the cellar had nothing to do with her urge to move. I wasn't convinced but hey, if she was unhappy then its best to go. She had me tell the estate agent about the room, but not the contents, if we hadn't the bad spirit would follow us apparently. Well moved to a place without a basement.