Haunted London

The Langham

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London's first grand hotel, opened in 1865 opposite what is now BBC Broadcasting House, and often called the capital's most haunted hotel. Room 333 is the centre of the legend, with a Victorian ghost said to appear there in October.

The ghost story: In October 1973 the BBC announcer James Alexander Gordon, best known for reading the football results, was staying in Room 333. He woke in the night to see a glowing ball of light take the shape of a man in extravagant Victorian evening dress, hovering above the floor with the…

The Savoy

London's most famous luxury hotel, opened on the Strand in 1889. A little girl is said to haunt its lifts and Room 502 on the fifth floor, and the 1923 shooting of Ali Fahmy in one of its suites remains one of the capital's most notorious crimes.

The ghost story: The Savoy's best-known ghost is a little girl said to have died in the building. Guests and staff describe a lift that appears to be operated by her, and she has been reported in the fifth-floor corridor and in Room 502.

The Cadogan

The Chelsea hotel where Oscar Wilde was arrested in 1895, built around the former home of the actress Lillie Langtry. Langtry's ghost is said to wander the rooms that were once her house, especially around Christmas.

The ghost story: Lillie Langtry, one of the most famous actresses of the Victorian age and a lover of the Prince of Wales, lived at 21 Pont Street from the 1890s. Her house was later incorporated into the Cadogan, and her ghost is said never to have left it.

St Pancras Renaissance Hotel

The Gothic Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras, abandoned for decades and nearly demolished before its rescue. Ghost guides describe a lady in Victorian dress, a young girl and a former guest at the foot of the bed in Room 506.

The ghost story: The best-known story is of a guest who died in his sleep in Room 506. Since then, guests are said to have woken to find a man standing at the foot of the bed.

Grange Blooms Hotel

A small Georgian townhouse hotel beside the British Museum, said to be haunted by a former resident, named in some accounts as Dr John Cumming.

The ghost story: Ghost guides say Grange Blooms is haunted by a former resident, named as Dr John Cumming. There are no frightening encounters attached to the story, and the hotel is known as a friendly, low-key choice for ghost tourists rather than a place for a scare.

Hazlitt's

A Georgian townhouse hotel in Soho where the essayist William Hazlitt died in 1830. His ghost is said to sit reading in the library and to move things in the dining room.

The ghost story: William Hazlitt, one of the great English essayists, spent his last weeks in lodgings at 6 Frith Street and died there on 18 September 1830, reportedly saying "Well, I've had a happy life." He was buried in St Anne's churchyard nearby.

Brown's Hotel

London's oldest hotel, opened in Mayfair in 1837 by Lord Byron's former valet. A maid who fell from a window is said to haunt the corridors, and guests describe the sound of a typewriter linked to Rudyard Kipling.

The ghost story: The story told about Brown's is of a maid named Caroline who fell from a window in the 19th century. Whether it was an accident or something worse was never established.

The Royal Horseguards

A Victorian riverside palace on Whitehall that once housed the first chief of the British Secret Service. Legend says a heartbroken young woman haunts Room 333, with the soldier she loved still searching the corridors.

The ghost story: The hotel's best-known legend tells of a young woman in love with a soldier her father refused to accept. In one version the couple tried to elope and the soldier was executed; in all of them she took her own life in Room 333, the same number as the Langham's famous haunted…

Great Northern Hotel

London's first purpose-built railway hotel, opened at King's Cross in 1854. Ghost guides tell of a woman glowing with a blue light in the corridors and a Victorian gentleman in the bar.

The ghost story: The story told about the Great Northern is of a woman who died by suicide in one of its rooms in the 1920s. Her figure is said to walk the corridors in a glow of blue light. A man in Victorian dress has been reported in the bar area.