A retired teacher has described the “spooky” moment a pair of scissors flew through the air threateningly close to her head at Lauderdale House.

Gina Evans, 56, was helping her sister Helen Staniforth prepare for her London Scenery exhibition at the Highgate arts centre last week when she experienced the house’s rumoured paranormal phenomenon first-hand.

First, the ladder she had just climbed down from began to shake violently. “At first I thought it was because I had just got off it, but then it kept on shaking,” said Mrs Cusack.

The next thing she knew, a pair of scissors she had left on top of the ladder soared 4ft through the air, whistling past her ear, before becoming firmly lodged in the Lower Gallery’s wooden floorboards.

“It was a spooky thing. It must have been Nell Gwynn getting in touch with us!”, said Mrs Cusack, of Shropshire.