Inside Sydney’s most haunted house at Gerard Street, Gladesville

Paranormal investigators in the 1980s dubbed this humble Sydney home “more evil than Amityville”, and more spinechilling than The Exorcist. Its spooky history has faded into the background, until now.

This home has been labelled one of Sydney’s most haunted houses. Picture Thomas Lisson

At first glance, Gerard Street, Gladesville, is just like any other Sydney street. Quiet. Lined with brick heritage buildings. Homes that will cost you an arm and a leg. A normal Sydney street – if it weren’t for the ghosts.

Since 1980, ghost stories have stalked Gerard Street, breathing down the neck of neighbours and would-be investors. Whether these ghosts are real or not depends on who you ask. But the rumours that haunt this street are undeniable.

It all started in April 1980, when the now-defunct Sydney newspaper The Sun splashed on a picture of one house on the street with a single, screaming headline. “FAMILY FLEE GHOST HOUSE.”

The house in the Amityville Horror.

World-renowned paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren had visited the house the night before. The owners had reached out to the investigators, convinced an evil presence was terrorising their house.

The Warrens agreed to a visit, and with sceptical cadet journalist Jacquie Thompson by their side, they entered the Gerard Street home. What happened next marred the home forever.

They declared the home “more evil than Amityville”, the house that inspired the horror film “The Exorcist.”

The Warrens left the young Sydney family with a chilling ultimatum: “Leave, or die.” And so, the family did, catapulting the home into infamy. In the years since the home has cycled through owners and renters. Over time, its spooky history has faded into the background, until now.

Ed and Lorraine Warren told the residents they should “leave or die”.

Today, in 2024, almost 45 years since the infamous article, the ghost stories that followed Gladesville are back after author James Phelps revisited the home for his new book Australian Ghost Stories.

The former journalist investigated the house with a sceptical eye, determined to get to the bottom of things. He managed to track down former neighbours and locals who knew the house intimately. He even spoke with the original reporter Ms Thompson in her first and only interview since the Gladesville article in 1980. What he found left him with goosebumps.

“I have no doubt that these people believe the house is haunted. And I have no doubt that these people think they had these experiences. There’s certainly something about that house that is making people very nervous,” he said.

“It’s just freaky, walking up to it, it’s not your classical haunted house, it’s not the gables and the broken down palings. It’s brick red, but it’s completely freaky all the same,” he said.

He tells us how one former resident he managed to track down discovered a series of cell-like rooms buried underneath the house.

The house was once compared to the ‘scariest movie of all time’, "The Exorcist".

“Each little room had doors, and each little room had a lock,” said the former resident.

“We couldn’t figure out any reason for someone to have a series of dungeon-like rooms under the house.”

The woman claimed she knew nothing of the house’s haunted history. Yet she felt something was amiss.

“I could just just sense something was not right. At first I heard things from the others (her roommates). They spoke about all these strange things happening,” she said.

Over time, she saw things fly across the room, loud noises and felt a presence in front of her.

“Cross my heart, I am not lying. Suddenly, these huge, heavy footsteps were in the room. Something I could not see was walking right towards me. I froze. I just sat there, scared stiff … I was terrified,” she told Phelps.

As for Phelps, her words left the hairs on his arms standing.

“As a journalist, you get a pretty good nose for who’s telling you, porkies or not. People want to be out there because they’re going to make some money off it, or they want to be famous,” he said.

“None of these people had that agenda. What makes them even more believable is the fact that they were so reluctant to get on the record and talk initially, and they all had credible reasons for that,” he said.

“I’ve never seen a house that’s so isolated and like it’s alive, but it’s also dead,” he said.

Today, that house remains standing and is occupied by renters.

When The Daily Telegraph visited, the house stood quietly. Its old-fashioned lamps, dim and out of place, flickered in the misty afternoon. Letters spilt out of the mailbox. The driveway was empty. No one is home.

Still, we knocked, with no answer. The silence was deafening. Then, we heard it: the slow, unmistakeable creak of a door swinging open.

We didn’t stick around to find out more.

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