Ghost In An Old Cinema

The location of this experience is the same as a previous one I posted called "An Edinburgh Pub Haunting" though not directly related as it occurred in a different part of the premises.

Bit of background first. The pub was opened in a building that used to be a snooker hall and before that a cinema. The owners of the pub own the whole building but only use the ground floor level as a bar, with the cellar in the basement. The upstairs is just used as a place to throw loads of old crap that there is nowhere else for, old signage, old unused furniture, Christmas decorations etc.

More importantly for this story is that upstairs the seats of the old cinema are still there in situ, just as they were when the cinema was operational.

Back in the days in Scotland when it used to be legal for the staff to stay back after closing time for a couple of drinks, we would occasionally go exploring upstairs to see what we could find and also to show new staff the place. I began to notice that there was always one seat folded down in the sitting position and was clean (everything up there was covered in dust). A different seat each time. Once I went to return it to its up position, and found it difficult to do because they had become stiff over time and difficult to move. I always just presumed that a different member of staff had done this, and I didn't take much notice.

As time went on I became manager of the bar and therefore a key holder. One time I discovered that I was the closing manager one night and was opening again the following morning. I saw my opportunity and before I left that night, I went upstairs and made sure that every single seat was in its up position before I locked the door to upstairs, set the alarm and locked the building for the night.

Next morning I was first in, so opened the building, unset the alarm and went straight upstairs to see. Had a look around and low and behold I noticed one seat in the sitting position and clean of dust. I put it back in its up position and again found it very difficult to move. It required a lot of force to move it up or down.

There are no windows in that part of the building (as it was a cinema) and there is no draft blowing through from anywhere. The air there is very still. There are no animals up there either apart from a few mice who I'd say would have a lot of trouble moving them seats. The only way in and out of upstairs is the way I came, so there couldn't have been squatters etc. There without setting off the alarm.

Thanks for reading

John