The Paranormal Database

Floating Beds

Location: Paisley (Renfrewshire) - Alexandra Nursing Home (formerly Royal Alexander Infirmary Hospital), Calside
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: August 1994 - May 1999
Further Comments: A former staff member claimed that some of her colleagues had experienced paranormal phenomena at the building. These included hearing footsteps in the loft (the area was padlocked off), a phantom man dragging what looked like a body bag, beds being elevated and pushed away from the wall, and noises of running water and whispers in rooms where residents were asleep.

Lady of Glen Coats

Location: Paisley (Renfrewshire) - Coats Hospital, Ferguslie Park (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This shade could be heard playing the piano in the upper part of the building, when not standing over sleeping patients. She may be the same ghost as the 'White Witch', another entity from the same locale.

Lady Albertha

Location: Plymouth (Devon) - Albertha ward, Greenbank Hospital (no longer standing)
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The shade of Lady Albertha, who donated the money for the ward to be built, used to appear beside the cots of sick children. When she appeared, the child was sure to recover, regardless of how ill they were.

Napoleonic POW

Location: Plymouth (Devon) - Freedom Fields Hospital (no longer operational)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1976, 1989
Further Comments: A third year student nurse spotted a short man in blue uniform running down a staircase. Phoning security, they reassured the student that the figure was the resident ghost, a Napoleonic prisoner of war. Thirteen years later, poltergeist activity on the site appeared in the press, with staff reporting flickering lights, doors opening and closing, and boxes falling to the floor.

A ghostly woman in white, illustration by Wayne Lowden.

Woman in White

Location: Plymouth (Devon) - Geriatric wards, Mount Gould Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Varies
Further Comments: These wards are reputed to be built on the site of a battle and numerous unexplained occurrences are said to have happened. One male staff member reported a white lady who disappeared into a room. On investigation, the room was found empty, but the patient the man was standing beside at the time of the sighting died before morning, even though he was not obviously unwell.

Child

Location: Poole (Dorset) - Baiter Park (former site of an isolation hospital)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Possible late 1990s
Further Comments: A ghostly figure of a small thin child standing by a bench was spotted by one witness. The entity and entity locked eyes before the ghost faded away.

Elsie

Location: Poole (Dorset) - Hospital and Grey Towers Hall (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre-1990s
Further Comments: The hospital here had a reputation as being haunted by a ghost named Elsie.

Pool of Blood

Location: Portsmouth (Hampshire) - Royal Portsmouth Hospital (no longer standing)
Type: Other
Date / Time: 1940s-1970s
Further Comments: Local folklore says that the operating theatre had a pool of blood on the floor which could never be cleaned, no matter how hard the staff tried to remove it.

Looking for Child

Location: Portsmouth (Hampshire) - St Mary's Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1969
Further Comments: A ghostly woman in a dressing gown was once said to wander the hospital looking for her baby, who had died of unknown complications.

Young Boy

Location: Rochester (Kent) - St Bartholomew's Hospital (no longer standing)
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 2021
Further Comments: After being abandoned, the hospital attracted several spooky stories, including the tale of a woman who would walk through walls, and the appearance of a young boy which would herald a death on a ward.

Matilda

Location: Rochford (Essex) - Poor Law Infirmary (would later become Rochford Hospital, but no longer standing)
Type: Other
Date / Time: January 1923
Further Comments: A traditional looking ghost in a sheet reportedly upset people in the infirmary for several weeks, ringing bells and blowing out lights. A rumour started that the ghost belonged to a former nurse named Matilda. After workers threatened to leave, local spiritualists offered to help, and a fifty pound reward was offered, a nurse lay in wait for the entity, revealing it to be nothing more than Edwin Gell, a male attendant, making mischief. Gell was dismissed from his job and took the matter to court, although the judge ruled his joke was 'grave misconduct' and the dismissal justified.

Most Not Haunted?

Location: Ryhope (Durham) - Cherry Knowle Hospital, Laurels Block
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2008
Further Comments: Ghost hunters were said to be putting their lives at risk by breaking into this former hospital, and local newspaper Sunderland Echo named it 'the most haunted hospital in the UK'. Unfortunately, there is a distinct lack of historic ghost stories relating to the structure, and one cannot help but to think a modern myth is in the making.

Nurse in Long Skirt

Location: Scunthorpe (Lincolnshire) - Scunthorpe General Hospital
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: During the illness of a baby
Further Comments: If a baby is seriously ill on the ward, a ghostly nurse in a long skirt sometimes appears, accompanied by the smell of violets. The baby always recovers after her visit.

Sound of New Boots

Location: SE1 (Greater London) - Guy's Hospital, St Thomas Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1969?
Further Comments: A nurse dressed in late nineteenth century garb has been seen walking down the corridors of the hospital, sometimes placing her hand on patients' shoulders to reassure them. When not seen, she is heard - pacing loudly down echoing walkways.

St Thomas' Hospital, London.

Grey Nurse

Location: SE1 (Greater London) - St Thomas' Hospital
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century, prior to a death of a patient
Further Comments: St Thomas' Hospital, London. A ghostly nurse dressed in grey, reluctant to leave her job, has been mistaken for a real person - until she vanishes into thin air. Other stories say that the nurse's legs abruptly end at the knees. Although her facial details are perfect and of utmost clarity, no one has been able to place or identify her. Some tales report that patients who spot this phantom woman died soon after, a theme repeated in a few other hospitals in the UK.

Old Lady

Location: Sheffield (South Yorkshire) - Middlewood Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: This old lady has been seen wandering around the former Ward Eight, where she disappears when she walks through a wall. There are also stories of disembodied footsteps running on the stairs.

Matron

Location: Sheffield (South Yorkshire) - Northern General Hospital, Vickers Corridor
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2003 ('dream'), October 2012 Victorian man
Further Comments: At least two members of staff have reported the same 'dream' while sleeping in the staff room - they have awoken to see an angry matron-styled nurse with one hand over the witnesses' mouth and the other hand around their neck, trying to strangle them. One witness kicked and screamed before the apparition vanished in the blink of an eye. In 2012 two witnesses spotted a man in Victorian clothing drift past them while on the bell tower staircase.

German Soldier

Location: St Andrews (Guernsey) - German Military Underground Hospital and Ammunition Store
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2008 (Photograph taken)
Further Comments: Several phantoms are said to haunt this former German building, including a ghostly soldier and a lady. Disembodied voices have also been reported (and recorded). In 2008 a photograph was taken which some believe show a spirit, although it is more likely to be a result of a long exposure and camera shake.

Glowing Lady

Location: Stockport (Greater Manchester) - St Thomas's Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Prior to a death
Further Comments: This radiant woman appears dressed as either a nurse or a nun, and always just before the death of a patient on a certain ward.

Children

Location: Stoke on Trent (Staffordshire) - City General Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: The old block containing the paediatric ward was believed to be haunted by several children. One doctor running through the block after being bleeped saw seven children playing in the area. It was not until later she realised that the ward was closed and empty.

Green Man

Location: Stotfold (Bedfordshire) - Fairfield Hospital (was The Three Counties Asylum), now private flats
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1996
Further Comments: A member of staff reported seeing a man wearing a green staff uniform walking towards the hospital who vanished without trace. Footsteps would also be heard from empty rooms, wheelchairs moved unaided, door handles turned without human hand nearby and locked windows would be found open.

Whitish Figure Running over Brambles

Location: Stowmarket (Suffolk) - Pauper's Graveyard (near Stowlodge Hospital?)
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s, and July 2018
Further Comments: The witness said this figure appeared quite normal but drew attention to itself by running a couple of inches over the foliage in this area. The witness speculated the ghost is one of the poor buried in the nearby graveyard. The entity may have been spotted again in 2018 by a woman leaving the graveyard, when a fast moving figure disappeared into brambles.

A smoky, ghostly warning.

Pungent Cigars

Location: Sunderland (Tyne and Wear) - Royal Infirmary Hospital (Ward F62, no longer standing)
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: This was a palliative care ward. A doctor who worked there would smoke very pungent cigars. After he died the smell of cigars would fill the air a few minutes before a serious medical event occurred. So many staff experienced the smoke that it became an unofficial procedure to check every patient and call in resuscitation staff if anyone detected the smell.

Matron

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Grey Coat School (Hospital)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Stories are still told today about the murdered nurse, and how her ghost walks various parts of the building, scaring the young students.

Grey Lady

Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Westminster Hospital
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: When operational, this shady entity would appear just prior to the death of a patient, normally standing over the bed of the soon to be deceased.