Bournemouth Town Hall

The Town Hall is the haunt of a ghost from World War 1; he enters the building and vanishes and is more usually seen in autumn. A phantom horse, stamping its hooves as it waits, has been observed outside the Town Hall. A man with a mahogany coloured face in "eastern clothing", including a turban has also been encountered (accompanied by a blast of cold air on at least one occasion). Heavy, pacing footsteps have also been heard.

Updated: 28/2/20: Michael Stead of the Heritage Team at Bournemouth Heritage Library provided me with a document dated 2004 detailing the ghosts - these include a phantom 1st World War nurse who now walks through the car park walls and an Indian soldier of the same era who is seen in the old morgue (now the car park), where he walks along an old corridor to get a drink of water from a sink; a young girl of about 10 on the staircase; a Scotsman playing the bagpipes; a worker feeling a hand on his shoulder; a Russian soldier near the main reception; a coach and horses heard outside the building; a spectral cat; doors closing by themselves; a lady in "strange clothing" coming out of the lift; small boys seen waving from a basement window (it turns out that they had perished in a fire in the room); a headless Maharajah who sits in a chair on the 4th floor and somehow moans; and many more stories too!

On October 23rd, 2025 and following a press article about the ghosts (which repeated the material above), I recontacted the town hall and got in touch with Sarah, the library assistant who confirmed that Michael no longer worked for them, and told me that, "I’m not aware of any recent reports of ghostly activity."

Link: Bournemouth Echo

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