Luton History: The tragic and spooky story of 88 Dunstable Road

I recently offered my skills to a local community history project, Museum of Stories: Bury Park, a new audio walking tour of true stories in a free app.

I was originally approached to find a ghost at 88 Dunstable Road, and I found one. But the deeper I delved into this house, the more I turned up other tragic, unexplained events.

No. 88 Dunstable Road was built around the late 1890s. It was a substantial three-bedroomed house suitable for the up-and-coming businessman. The first tenants recorded were Mr and Mrs Horace Barford and their only child Florence. Her tragic end is one of the audio stories in the Museum.

Horace Barford was brother to Murray Barford, the elected Mayor of Luton during the First World War. Murray’s son Roland, born 1900, was a regular visitor to No. 88 Dunstable Road. His cousin Florence who lived there was the same age, in fact they grew up together.

As Roland entered his teenage years he broke away from the family tradition of joining the family Bleach and Dye works, he studied to become a Chemist and qualified.

Then for some unknown reason, in 1927 he emigrated to Australia. He arrived, but within one month he died. The postmortem stated accidental death due to drinking cyanide which he mistook for water. How a chemist could make this mistake is anyone’s guess.

Moving forward to 1911 we find Edith and Violet De Garis, sisters born in Guernsey. They stay until after the First World War ends, but tragedy follows thereafter.

In 1921 aged 31, Violet De Garis and another of her sisters, Amy, also pack their bags and emigrate to Australia.

However in 1923 Violet becomes the victim of surgery gone wrong in an Australian hospital and sadly dies. Amy returns home alone.

The next tenant at 88 Dunstable Road was one Percy Allder in 1935, who founds a well-known local opticians. Mr Allder decides to take his wife on a cruise later that year to the Baltics.

In the early hours after leaving Liverpool with 630 passengers aboard, his ship the Laurentic collides in the Irish sea with another ship from the White Star line. Everyone was told to grab their lifebelts, and six people died. Luckily, the Allders were not among them, and the Laurentic was safely towed back to Liverpool.

One other strange phenomenon is the furniture in No. 88. Firstly the solid oak shelf that had been in place for decades recently dropped off the wall and broke spontaneously. Then there is the very old, teak optician’s cabinet.

The nameplate reads Walter Horace Thompson Ltd. I traced this Company and he was in business in Hatton Gardens London, and yes an optician.

His son Walter Evelyn Butt Thompson took over the business after the death of his father in 1924. Walter inherited £34,000 and decided to invest in the up-and-coming cinemas of the day instead of remaining an optician.

In 1932 Walter Evelyn Butt Thompson was declared bankrupt, he had lost every penny.

The cabinet was sold off to raise money to clear some of his debts...it arrives at No. 88 Dunstable Road - spooky.

Visit www.museumofstories.co.uk to find out more about Luton’s past.