Appearance / Description of Object(s)

The craft was a typical saucer shape. It was of metallic appearance, a rather blue metal. I think I recall 'windows' but am not sure. The base of the craft certainly had indentations, square or rectangular in shape, I think. These might have been something to do with the propulsion system or alternatively perhaps they housed feet. An interesting feature of the sighting was the strangeness of the movement of the craft. At the time I could only describe it to myself as seeming to be spinning (like a toy top), but at the same time appearing to 'snake' in an impossible way. Always the same view of the vehicle presented itself to me - the underside and the side that was facing me. If you slowly extend your arm whilst describing circles of the hand from the wrist, that's the nearest I can get to the sense of it. But such a movement would mean I should have been seeing different views - and I wasn't. Many years later I read a similar description in an intelligent book on UFOs - the words 'falling leaf' were used. This seemed to tally with my own experience.

Size of Object(s)

Relative size 6 inches across, maybe a little more? It appeared to be not far above the treetops. I would estimate that it was around 20 feet across, and something in the region of 7 to 9 feet high.

Description of Area / Surroundings

The sighting was on the outskirts of London. No special sites or features in the area as far as I'm aware. Mostly Victorian residential housing. The immediate surroundings are described in the details of my sighting, above.

Full Description & Details

I was walking north up the Archway Road (A1), terraced houses on my (the left) side of the road, a small area of woodland on the right. Between the woods and the road is an overground part of the London underground system, leading to some sidings a few hundred yards further north. A couple of hundred yards north of me was a large triangular roundabout on which was locared a pub (possibly no longer in existence). Beyond this the main road continued north. A road fiiltered in from the left, beyond the row of terraced houses.

I became aware of something in the air sweeping round from behind the end of the row of buildings, crossing over the road and turning to head towards me. My first thought was that it was a bird. (Yes, really! But that it might be a plane did not occur to me - too small, wrong shape.) As it came closer my brain figured it wasn't a bird so the next thought was that it was a black bin liner blowing in the wind. But that idea was soon discounted when it became clear that the object was saucer shaped. It continued to travel towards me, almost parallel with the road, and then veered off to its left, over the trees just beyond the railway line and disappeared from view beyond the trees.

The Archway Road is part of a very busy trunk road (A1) leading north out of London. At the time of the sighting (which lasted perhaps 20-30 seconds at most) I recall no traffic passing me. The only other individual I saw was an elderly man on the other side of the road, with walking stick and head down, walking north.

Can sighting be explained as any conventional man-made or natural object?

No.

Witness Background

I'm a freelance graphic and web designer.

Views on UFOs, before and after sighting

For reasons too complicated to go into here, I did not at the time of the sighting believe in PHYSICAL extraterrestrial UFOs. I was more open to the possiblity of sightings of UFOs seen as differently coloured lights in the sky (although I'd never seen any). So as far as I can understand, there was nothing in my history or conditioning that would increase the likelihood of my believing I'd seen or expecting to see a metal saucer. I had read some books on the subject, but tended to pooh-pooh much that I'd read because it didn't coincide with my view that UFOs would be of a more rarified composition. This will sound stupid, but I can't remember where I got that idea from!

Other Comments

This was the only sighting I've experienced. I wonder about it often to this day. How could I see something so unusual in London (albeit on the outskirts) and yet hear no reports of others having seen it? (On the other hand, I never reported it either!) It was not unheard of for the Archway Road to have a quiet interlude, but the fact that there was no traffic admittedly lent the scene a dreamlike quality. The fact that there was only one other pedestrian on the road at the time was not so peculiar, though. That part of the road was only really used by residents returning to or leaving their homes - no shops or other facilities on that stretch.

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