Top ten cities for haunted pubs
- London – 117 haunted pubs
- Brighton – 42
- York – 22
- Liverpool – 22
- Leeds – 13
- Edinburgh – 12
- Bristol – 11
- Cardiff – 9
- Newcastle – 8
- Nottingham – 7
- Birmingham – 6
As part of a study to find the most haunted cities in the UK, holiday lettings specialist Stay in Cornwall compared data including the number of abandoned buildings and haunted places in each city to calculate an overall score before ranking the cities accordingly.
From this, Stay in Cornwall was able to sort the haunted venues in each city by building type to determine which had the most haunted pubs.
Research revealed that London – which was also deemed the most haunted British city – had the most haunted pubs in the UK. The 117 haunted sites in the capital include the Ten Bells in Spitalfields, east London, supposedly haunted by the ghost of Jack The Ripper victim Annie Chapman who still lingers in the pub where she had her last drink, among its most notorious.
With 42 haunted pubs, Brighton was revealed to have the second highest number of haunted sites according to in Stay in Cornwall's list. The Marlborough Pub & Theatre was highlighted as one of the scariest drinking places in Britain because, according to Victorian folklore, the pub’s landlord is said to have pushed his wife down the stairs and carried her into the cellar of the pub, where she passed away following her injuries.
Liverpool and York, each hosting 22 haunted pubs, were revealed to have the most haunted pubs of the UK’s northern cities. The Golden Fleece in York is believed to be haunted by no fewer than 15 ghosts, with many visitors claiming to have encountered a man holding a pistol wandering the hallways before disappearing down the staircase, and the Slaughterhouse in Liverpool earning its name from dark stories surrounding its former landlord.