The most haunted places in Britain this Halloween – from the ‘watercress woman’s’ bridge to ghostly girl’s sweetshop
HALLOWEEN is here again and for folk who scare easily, it’s best to avoid haunted houses and creepy woods.
But on the spookiest night of the year ghosts are lurking closer than you think and everyday places can hide terrifying stories from the past too.
From a furniture shop on the site of Sweeney Todd’s first gruesome killing to fright nights at a museum and a bistro built on a brutal crime scene - would you like ‘dead’ to start?
We’ve rounded up spots around Britain with the most horrible histories. Definitely pumpkin to talk about.
Sweeney Todd's slaughterhouse
1. Balfour & Byrom, Hastings Old Town
Everyone has heard of Sweeney Todd.
He’s the murderous barber who cut the throats of unsuspecting customers and served them up as pie fillings.
Aged 12 Todd visited Hastings and found work at Harris the butcher's on the high street.
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He met and fell in love with Mr Harris' daughter Elizabeth and quickly proposed. But she flatly refused.
Chillingly, he crept into her room, slit her throat and made her into pies in the shop downstairs.
Ladders moved by librarian ghost
2. Leeds Library, Commercial Street
Founded in 1768, this is the oldest subscription library in the country.
It is also haunted by the ghost of a former Chief Librarian, Vincent Sternberg, which was described as being “pallid and hairless” when it was first seen in 1864.
In 2017, ghost-hunter Sean Reynolds filmed a ladder moving by itself along one of the bookcases.
Ripper victims' watering hole
3. The Ten Bells pub, East London
This Victorian boozer in Spitalfields is always heaving with an eclectic mix of punters.
The fact that Jack the Ripper victim Annie Chapman had her last drink here is of interest to many.
And the pub was also a stomping ground of another victim, Mary Jane Kelly.
Her mutilated body was discovered on the opposite side of the road from the Ten Bells.
Ghost walks regularly pass this haunting pub for good reason. A pint of chills-ner please.
'Most haunted village'
4. Pinnock Bridge, Pluckley Village, Kent
Pluckley claims to be the most haunted village in England with multiple ghostly residents including a phantom highwayman and a spectral miller.
One such spirit ‘the watercress woman’ sits on the bridge smoking her pipe.
The woman once made a living selling watercress from the river until she burnt alive on the bridge.
Some witnesses describe a faint pink glow that hovers in the air on this spot. A bridge over troubled waters.
'Staff fear working on Halloween'
5. Co-op, Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire
This unsuspecting convenience store is reportedly so haunted that many staff book Halloween off work out of sheer terror.
While the store itself looks fairly normal, the basement below is creepy.
Doors rattle, stock mysteriously moves around, items fly off the shelves and lights flicker, according to the staff.
Last year on Halloween the manager closed the shop early after staff complained they felt they were being followed.
Spirits yell & throw things
6. National Emergency Services Museum, West Bar, Sheffield
Get ready for fright night at the museum.
This functioning museum and tourist attraction is said to be riddled with suspicious shadows, moving objects and loud angry voices coming from empty rooms.
Visitors have also reported regular cold spots.
The building dates from 1900 and was formerly a combined police and fire station.
The ghosts - including a man called Cain and a young pickpocket - are thought to be ex-cons once held in cells here.
Dead lady found with heart still beating
7. Bleeding Heart restaurant, London
With its dark red walls and bleeding heart logo, this French restaurant isn’t out to hide its gruesome past.
According to legend Lady Elizabeth Hatton held a winter ball in Hatton Garden in 1626.
A mysterious man with a hunchback and a clawed hand danced with Hatton, then led her outside.
She was supposedly found the following morning, murdered, her heart still pumping blood on the site of this bistro. Bone-appetit!
Railway haunted by screaming workers
8. The Box Tunnel, near Bath
The tunnel, built in 1841, runs between Bath and Chippenham and is considered to be one of the spookiest parts of the UK railway network.
Several different ghostly sightings have been reported over the years.
In 2011, four men working on the track heard cries at the east exit, and spotted a woman in a nightdress looking down on them.
She then vanished into thin air.
The sounds of a phantom train also echos along the tracks here.
Devil worshipper burned at stake
9. The Grassmarket, Edinburgh
A hotspot for retail and nightlife in the city but this was once the site of public executions.
Pub names such as The Last Drop hint to its sinister past.
And a coach drawn by headless horses is said to drive the ghost of Major Weir down the West Bow to the Grassmarket every May.
Previously a respected resident of Edinburgh, in 1670 he provoked shock when he admitted to a string of horrible crimes and confessed to being a sorcerer and a devil worshiper.
He was strangled and burned at the stake on this spot.
Phantom footsteps & ghostly girl
10. The Sweet Shop, Taunton, Somerset
CCTV footage from this sweet shop shows jars of confectionary floating through the air in the dead of the night, before arranging themselves in a circle on the floor.
Spooky surveillance images also show the figure of a ghostly little girl in the shop.
The building dates from the 1500s and was originally used by the monks of Taunton and was the Naval and Military pub.
Other spooks include phantom footsteps in the hallway. Trick or sweet?
In 2018, The Sweet Shop moved from its original location on East Reach to Crown Walk – it is not known if more hauntings occurred in the new location.
Freezing hand grabbed worker
11. Debenhams, Salisbury
Residents of Salisbury must be pleased Debenhams moved online in May.
The store was said to be haunted by the ghost of Henry Stafford, the 2nd duke of Buckingham who was beheaded in 1483 after being found guilty of treason against King Richard III.
It is said his last few hours alive were spent locked in the attic of this building.
An electrician who was working alone ran out of the store never to return after feeling a freezing hand grasp his shoulder.
Let’s hope a ghost-ery store moves in next.
Plague pit victims haunt the Tube
12. Liverpool Street station, London
As if Londoners didn’t have enough reasons to dread the morning commute this is a real rail biter.
In 2015 a plague pit containing the heaped bones of suspected plague victims was discovered underneath this major UK station.
If that doesn’t scare you, the ghost will.
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Staff and railway workers have complained about the ghost of a man in overalls pacing up and down the eastbound central line platform during closing hours, waiting for a train that never comes.
Others have spotted strange figures on the CCTV system. Did someone say freight train?
