5 Famously Haunted Hotels in London
Step inside the spookiest hotels in London, where certain ghostly guests don't always pay for their board and lodging.
The Langham
If The Langham is the most famously haunted hotel in London, room 333 at this renowned property is the most haunted of all the rooms in the capital. It’s here that many have reported seeing the ghost of a Victorian doctor, who murdered his wife and then took his own life while the pair were honeymooning at the hotel.
Amazingly, many people actually request they be put in room 333, hoping for a paranormal encounter. If you’re less choosy, keep an eye out for the German prince (who threw himself off a balcony here), who’s said to move through walls at the property, lowering the temperature of whatever room he ends up in, and generally being all ghostly and unpleasant.
Grange Blooms Hotel
This quaint hotel near the British Museum in central London is home to a suitably quaint (and not overly-scary-sounding) ghostly inhabitant. Dr John Cumming, previously of the Victorian era, can sometimes be seen in the lounge area of the Grange Blooms, minding his own business, reading books about the coming apocalypse.
Georgian House Hotel
Genuinely a little creepy, this one. The story goes that in 1989, the manager was showing some guests around the Georgian House when he became irritated by some loud and unruly children. He then asked the receptionist to find out who had checked in with children and request they be kept under control — only to be told that no-one had checked in with children and, furthermore, none had entered the hotel that day. These same kids have often been seen on the upper floors of the hotel, but no-one’s entirely sure who they are or were.
The Savoy
Here’s proof that high-end luxury is no barrier to paranormal activity. One of the capital’s foremost 5-star institutions, The Savoy has long been dogged by reports of ghostly activity on the fifth floor. Listen out and you may hear the eerie rumbling of a mysterious lift, believed by some to be operated by the ghost of a young girl who died in the hotel.
Alternative theory: people who couldn’t afford to stay here in their past life decided to ghost in through the walls for a little snoop around.
The Cadogan Hotel
Celebrity connections give this entry some added spice. The restaurant of The Cadogan is said to be visited from time to time by the ghost of Lillie Langtry, the famously beautiful actress/producer/mistress of the Prince of Wales, who lived here in the late 1900s. Ghostly Langtry is altogether more modest than her real-life predecessor, reportedly only making appearances when the hotel is almost empty, and usually only around Christmas time.
On an entirely-less-ghostly-but-still-very-interesting note, it was here in room 118 that Oscar Wilde was arrested for gross indecency in 1895.
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