Imperial War Museum
The ghosts of fallen soldiers and wartime victims are said to haunt the galleries documenting Britain's military conflicts.
The Imperial War Museum, housed in the former Bethlem Royal Hospital building, carries the weight of two institutions steeped in trauma and suffering. Since its opening in 1920, staff and visitors have reported encounters with apparitions believed to be soldiers who perished in the conflicts documented within its walls. The most common sightings involve uniformed figures from various eras - WWI Tommies, WWII airmen, and even more recent service members - standing silently among the exhibits before fading from view.
Security guards conducting night patrols have reported deeply unsettling experiences in the Holocaust Exhibition and the WWI Trench Experience. Witnesses describe hearing whispered voices speaking in various languages, the sound of distant artillery fire, and even the smell of cordite and mud that has no physical source. Some guards refuse to walk certain galleries alone after dark, particularly near the displays of personal effects recovered from battlefields and concentration camps.
The building’s history as Bedlam, Britain’s notorious psychiatric hospital, adds another layer to its paranormal reputation. Staff report that certain areas exhibit two distinct types of haunting - military spirits and the tortured souls from the building’s asylum days. Visitors have described feeling overwhelming sadness and anxiety in specific galleries, experiencing sudden temperature drops, and seeing shadow figures moving in their peripheral vision. The museum’s role in preserving the memory of war’s victims seems to have created a space where the past refuses to remain silent.