Updates
Corrections, additions and new ghost reports for "UK Haunted Hospitality volume 3":
October 13th, 2025:
The Scotsman informs me of another haunted locale,
The Cannonball Restaurant and Bar
in Castlehill, Edinburgh; "[The ghost's] name is Alice, and she’s a Victorian sprog. Apparently, the 17th-century building, as well as being a duke’s residence, tenement and home to the Scottish Parliament, was also once a school ... there has been more than one sighting - a handful, I’d say - of this spirit. The first was from a builder, who was working late and saw her, standing at the end of the corridor and watching him. They did initially try to call her Katy, but she told them - via a clairvoyant who a staff member had visited while on holiday - that she was definitely Alice. In tribute, they have a retro desk in the stairwell, so she can get on with an eternity of arithmetic homework, and they leave sweets on it."
October 18th, 2025:
The Oxford Mail tells us of the
Gusto Restaurant in Oxford. It is said that a secret tunnel from the nearby Chequers pub allowed Catholics to escape during the Reformation but when their subterfuge was discovered Henry VIII's agents sealed the tunnel, trapping monks inside and they were left to perish. It is said that their chanting can still be heard in the cellars of both the Mitre (now the Gusto) and the Chequers in the High Street.
November 5thth, 2025:
The Sunderland Echo tells us of the Harvester Mansion House in Reading, where staff have said that customers had reported sightings of a young girl.
November 6thth, 2025:
The Lancashire Post says that Oliver Cromwell's shade is reported to haunt Pinocchio's Restaurant in Walton-le-Dale. The website adds that, "[the premises is where] Oliver Cromwell conducted the battle of Preston in 1648. When it was won he took a well-earned rest there to write his despatches at the inn."
November 20thth, 2025:
The 6th volume of "These Haunted Times" reveals that the Old Police Station on Red Lion Street in Richmond Upon Thames had reports of a lady in a dark gown on the staircase or the upper landing. The building now hosts the restaurant Franco Manca; it is not known if the ghost is still being seen.
November 24thth, 2025:
Tanith Wesson, owner of the Governor's House in Newark informed me via email (after a similar query months beforehand went unanswered); "As far as we're concerned we co-exist in harmony with our past residents and many reports have been given over the past years from all sorts of people, we are listed on the Newark Ghost Trail and have captured plenty of orbs on our night vision CCTV which I posted on our social media. " Unfortunately 'orbs' captured on CCTV are nothing paranormal but are dust or insects close to the camera.
December 3rd, 2025:
This was closed for a while and hence did not make it into my book, but The Oaks Turkish Kitchen restaurant in
West Hyde, Rickmansworth, had some phenomena when it was "The Royal Oak"; a figure was seen, at one time disappearing right in front of an employee. The ghost acquired the nickname "Fred." A door leading from the mens toilets to the car park and which was always kept locked was found open several times in the morning; in the end the door was nailed shut.
December 8th, 2025:
James Koppert informed me of the King Richard the Third Restaurant in Scarborough; "The Scarborough Evening News reported that when the building was having some work done upstairs by contractors Charles Day and Sons, an electrician called Jimmy Muskett had been working alone when he suddenly ran out terrified. He said he had turned around and there was a man which he described as a cavalier in the corner of the room. Jimmy refused to set foot in the room again and wouldn’t complete the work. An anonymous report was given to James saying that a worker approached a man who had fallen asleep in a chair. The man had a big white beard and old fishing clothing. When she got close to him to wake him he vanished.".
December 12th, 2025:
The Old White Hart hotel in Retford is now a restaurant, The Bull and Lobster at the White Hart. In its previous guise, a little girl was seen in the courtyard, running around. She died when the pub was a coaching house and a fidgety horse lunged, pushing the coach back against a wall, crushing the girl. A young woman has also been seen peering down from a window high up in the roof and footsteps heard in the corridor leading to this room; the door to this room has since been nailed shut. It is not known if these phenomena still occur.
December 29th, 2025:
Cafe Napoli on Weymouth's Esplanade is now open. When this building housed "Christopher Robin's Fancy Dress Shop," a figure was glimpsed in the storage area, and items would fall from the storage racks, sometimes falling further than they would as if they had just fallen. Whether these still occur in the current premises is not known.
Cafe Lounge in Rochester's High Street had two ghosts when it was occupied by a shop called Destiny's; The first was that of a child. The other was a monk named Brother Peter who is seen in the cellar; he apparently perished when the foundations collapsed. Whether they still manifest is not known.
December 30th, 2025:
Bread Bowl Bistro Cafe in Ipswich is now open. When this was Galley's restaurant, a "gentlemanly ghost" was reported, helpfully opening the door to the men's toilets. A shadowy figure was also said to have been seen out of the corner of the eye. Whether these phenomena still occur at this address is not known at present.
January 5th, 2026:
Kultura in Belmont Street, Aberdeen used to be a branch of Pizza Express. Whether anything still happens there is not known, but in 2009 there were footsteps on the back staircase, a filing cabinet that locked when the key was not in the building and the smell of toast being detected when the staff arrived in the morning.
January 6th, 2026:
The Coffee House in Standishgate, Wigan is now open. When this was a branch of WHSmith, a man and a woman "in period dress" were seen here and a member of staff heard someone in the toilet cubicle next to her - but when she left there was no-one there. A woman in a black Victorian dress has also been seen too. Whether they persist is not known at present.
January 8th, 2026:
The Little Rose restaurant in Trumpington Street, Cambridgeshire has now been taken over by another operator and is called North Star
January 15th, 2026:
While performing a routine trawl of locations on my database, I noticed that The Cricketers Arms pub in Baildon is now a restaurant known as the Saffron Desi. When it was the pub there was the ghost of a lifelike-looking man in a flat cap. Workers here talked of noises, the cellar door opening and closing and wet footprints in a freshly mopped floor (the employee was alone in the premises at the time.)
January 18th, 2026:
The Weird Wiltshire blog talks of The Boston Tea Party in Salisbury; footsteps have been heard on the 1st floor and the disused attic and in this latter location, the sound of voices have been heard. Employees have seen the shadow of feet pass by on the other side of the office door, en route to the attic. There was no one in the building to account for these phenomena.
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