My Adventure in the Haunted Flat

The incredible ceiling in the ballroom

A tiny kitchen within the kitchen!

Ring for service!

This is absolutely insane.

I am currently staying in the most incredible house I haveever had the pleasure of setting foot inside. It's like staying in the poshest hotel imaginable. This is actually a little difficult to put into words so you will have to bear with me, dear readers!

Ok, let me explain. My friend Hannah-May cleans for a very nice and very rich lady who has two very nice but very spoiled dachunds. Said nice and rich lady has been whisked away by her husband for a holiday to celebrate her 50th and asked Hannah-May to dog-sit. Because the house they live in is HUGE and somewhat creepy (and also apparently haunted – more on that later) she really didn't want to stay overnight on her own so she enlisted myself and Becca to help out and essentially have a bit of an adventure.

We arrived on Wednesday at around 4, settled in pretty quickly in the Children's Bedchambers upstairs and I got the tour of the place. There's the usual beautiful and spacious kitchen, dining room, toilets, bathrooms, utility room, bedrooms that you would expect to find in a lovely Regency flat, but on top of that, here we have an ante-chamber with an indoor fountain! Fully usuable servants quarters and hidden stairway! A toilet which was apparently used by a king! A dressing room which is hidden on the main stairway and is really, really creepy!

The crazy indoor fountain

The incredible range in the kitchen where we cooked and ate each night.

There's a Ballroom with a grand piano which was restored and redecorated by the V&A Museum (this is where I am currently sitting now, on the plushest sofa, watching something inane on the enormous TV) – so much gold leaf and rich embroidery! It's honestly like a room in the Royal Pavilion. I LOVE it so much. I've often wandered through old houses and castles wondering what it would feel like to stay over night there and NOW I KNOW! Crazy times. The Head Girl of Slytherin feels right at home here – granted, she rather fancies repainting the yellow marble-

effect walls with a deep forest green or silvery grey, but hey, you can't have everything. The house was taken over by squatters a few years ago, but that actually led to the house being saved from further damage. On of the upstairs toilets was broken and leaking, which meant the ceiling in the ballroom was being damaged but had the squatters not been there the damage would have gone on for much longer and the epic ceiling would have been unsalvagable!

And yes, it is reportedly haunted. The other girl who cleans here full time has told the owners and Hannah-May that she's been tapped on the shoulder three times while cleaning the hidden dressing room, only to turn round and find there's no-one there. Mrs Nice-And-Rich has seen odd refelctions in mirrors on the upper floors. Personally, we haven't seen anything ourselves yet, but I can well imagine it being haunted. The building is very old and as such, creeks and groans in the dark at night. Lights flicker on and off. The wind whistles in the chimneys and is clearly audible as a high-pitched moan in the large open fireplaces in most of the rooms and this is really offputting when you're here by yourself :) I have another night here tonight and Becca is joining us for a girly night of nailpainting, facemasks, movies, popcorn, drinking and gossip – and inevitably some ghost stories and tarot reading – so who knows what the darkened rooms will bring tonight?

I'll leave you with another photo and the rest are on my facebook!

The large, and somewhat creepy entrance hall. Can you see the orbs?