PARANORMAL COLD CASE
INVESTIGATING HISTORY’S MOST SPINE-CHILLING ENCOUNTERS
In November, BBC Radio’s Danny Robins shared the story of a ‘poltergeist’ that once wrought havoc in a Belfast tower block. But there’s now a new twist to the tale…
Christmas isn’t just a time for receiving unwanted socks and avoiding Brussels sprouts. The true purpose of the festive season is to tell ghost stories. There’s a long tradition of the spooky winter’s tale, stretching back to medieval times; a rush of fear to warm us on a cold night. After the Civil Wars, such tales were stamped out by Oliver Cromwell, but were rekindled in the modern era by Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and – slightly more recently – the BBC’s tradition of broadcasting a Christmas ghost story.
in touch with Danny to share his
paranormal experiences at Alanbrooke Hall
during the 1980s
So, for this issue, I’m revisiting one of the hauntings I’ve found most intriguing and chilling, to reveal astounding new evidence that will send a large shiver down your spine. Those who read the November 2021 edition of BBC History Revealed may remember the case of Room 6-11 at Alanbrooke Hall, a nondescript student hall of residence in Belfast. In 1981, Ken, a science student, was alone on the sixth floor during the Christmas break, when he experienced a series of terrifying events, including a sinister apparition and poltergeist activity. The truly odd thing was that Ken learnt the students who’d occupied the room the year before and year after had had similar experiences!
After Ken’s episode aired as part of my new series Uncanny on BBC Sounds, I was inundated by responses. The story went viral across Northern Ireland, and – amazingly, terrifyingly – other witnesses came forward! We were able to track down Billy, one of the students who’d stayed in Room 6-11 the year after Ken. He confirmed he’d su ered a year marred by appearances of the same sinister apparition and objects flying across the room!
Then I spoke to Gary Foster. Now a respected science professor, he’d been a student warden at Alanbrooke Hall back in the 1980s. “I was the best poacher-turned-gamekeeper ever,” says Gary, a rowdy mischievous student, now suddenly in charge of a hall full of other students. It was in the holidays, when Gary was alone in Alanbrooke, that he started to notice “the weirdness”. Lights came on on empty floors, phones rang, and the lift moved of its own accord, going up and down without a passenger – or without a human one, at least. He also had an experience identical to one of Ken’s – somebody banging on the door, only to open it and find an empty corridor! It felt as if there was something there, taunting him. “I joked they were going to have to do better with this thick-skinned, sceptical scientist!”
The bit of Gary’s story that made my blood run cold happened, ironically, in the intense heat of summer. He had one of the large windows in his 10th-floor room open, to bring in a breeze. Walking towards it, he felt his feet connect with some big solid object and he fell forwards! “My feet were o the floor,” says Gary, clearly still shaken. “I was balanced on the ledge, rocking, looking straight down, 10 floors. I wriggled back, heart thumping, to see what I had tripped over. There was absolutely nothing there.”
The memory of this moment would be uncomfortable enough, but Gary’s hair stood on end when he heard one detail in Ken’s account – something he’d been told about Room 6-11 by the woman who cleaned his corridor. She believed the reason the room was haunted was because three students had died in it. One of the young men had fallen from the window. It was believed to be suicide, but there had always been rumours that he was pushed…
Danny Robins is a writer, broadcaster and journalist. He is the presenter of the BBC Radio 4 podcasts The Battersea Poltergeist and Uncanny, available now on BBC Sounds
LISTEN
Gary discusses his time at Alanbrooke Hall in the fifth episode of Uncanny: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0010x7c