These haunted Russell Group unis have a terrifying ghost story – here’s where they’re lurking

Halloween is already scary enough for students – the essay deadlines are piling up, and there’s a high risk of drunken flatmates banging on your door at midnight. If you go to a Russell Group uni, you’ve got an even creepier concern. Loads of Russell Group unis are haunted by a harrowing amount of ghosts you need to be wary of at Halloween. Obviously, these ghost stories are all highly serious and scientific.

University of Bristol

@officialbristoluni

POV the building is haunted but you’re a law student wanting the Wills Library aesthetic 👻 📚 Bristol Uni’s Senior Estates Assistant and tour guide Gary is here to show off the three most haunted spots in the Wills Memorial Building this Halloween 🎃 #Halloween #bristoluni #bristol #universityofbristol #halloween2023 @Visit Bristol @Best of Bristol

♬ Spooky, quiet, scary atmosphere piano songs – Skittlegirl Sound

Ghostly figures supposedly haunt the very vibey Wills Memorial Building at the Univeristy of Bristol. Maybe they’re hungover students who never made it to their 9ams?

University of Birmingham

During World War One, the Great Hall was a temporary hospital for soldiers. Nurses stayed in the Birmingham Business School. One of them apparently tripped down a spiral staircase. Now her spirit wonders the corridors looking for patients.

University of Cambridge

Pretty much every Cambridge college has a resident ghost. Wander down King’s Parade on Halloween and you’re pretty likely to run into some 18th century spirits (or at least, some 21st century wasted freshers).

Trinity College is haunted by a nasty porter who scolds students for all eternity. The founders of Magdalene and Clare are rumoured to have liked their colleges so much that they never left. A somewhat quirky professor at King’s called Barret used to recreationally sleep in a coffin in his office. He died in it, and his screams echo around the college on the anniversary of his death.

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Corpus Christi College has a story that should be made into a Netflix mini series. So Catherine Spencer was the daughter of the college’s Master in the 1730s. She had a fling with a student called James Betts. Her father disapproved because James wasn’t posh enough. One time when her father came home early and interrupted date night, Catherine hid him in a cupboard. Catherine and her father went on holiday, and he persuaded her to dump James. A few months later, Catherine realised she hasn’t seen James around Cam in a while. She had forgotten to let him out the cupboard, and he died in there. Catherine was so grossed out that she died of horror. She and James’s ghosts supposedly run through the corridors of the college together and make out in St Bennett’s Churchyard.

Pov: your college has an outdoor pool but it’s haunted (Credit: Diliff via Creative Commons. Image was darkened)

The stories of the ghosts at Christ’s college are extra dramatic. Christopher Round and Philip Collier were besties and professors at Christ’s in the early 1800s. Philip kept being promoted above Christopher, and a girl they both fancied picked Philip. One morning, Philip’s body was found floating in the college swimming pool. Christopher’s spirit wanders the area at night out of guilt that he murdered his friend.

Yes, students still use that swimming pool. No, I wouldn’t recommend going for a dip at Halloween.

Cardiff University

Students getting sloshed in the Rummer Tavern on castle street should be wary this Halloween. An 18th century sailor found his wife in bed with someone else there. He was so heartbroken that he killed himself, and now his spirit haunts the toilets.

Durham University

Durham students cared too much about their grades even in the 1800s. A star student called Frederick Copeman lived in room 21 right at the top of University College. He saw his name wasn’t on a list of students who’d passed their degrees, so he leaped out his window. Turns out he’d got a first, but a bit of paper was covering up his name. Now his ghost’s screams keep students up at night when they’re trying to speed-write essays.

The Tab’s Durham team tried to commune with his spirit a few years ago. The results were somewhat inconclusive.

University of Edinburgh

I’m scared
(Credit: Kim Traynor via Creative Commons)

Edinburgh is absolutely stuffed with ghosts.  Greyfriars Kirkyard Cemetry is meant to be the most haunted graveyard in the world, and it’s pretty much bang in the middle of all the Edinburgh Uni buildings. Edinburgh Castle is also extra haunted. There’s apparently a ghost dog and I really want to meet it.

King’s College London

Guy’s Hospital backs onto the King’s campus, and it’s where many med students do placements. It’s also, like, 99 per cent certainly haunted. Late at night, staff have spotted a ghostly women in a 18th century uniform dashing down the corridors. Some patients say a ghostly hand has appeared on their shoulder when they’ve needed reassurance. I think this is proof that med students never stop working.

The first year accommodation hall Great Dover Street Apartments is built on top of an ancient Roman burial ground. Archaeologists disturbed the grave in the 1990s, but then the uni decided to make the building into student accommodation anway. Sweet dreams.

University of Liverpool

This uni was named the most haunted in the UK in 2022. There are a concerning 282,981 gravestones near the uni. Newsham Park Hosptial has an extra creepy history – it used to be an orphanage, then a mental asylum. It’s been derelict for 25 years because nobody knows what to do with it.

University of Oxford

It stands to reason that the uni with the snobbiest students would have the snobbiest ghosts. The Bodleian Library (the famous domed building you see on people’s Instagram stories) is supposedly haunted by King Charles I. During the English Civil War, King Charles I moved into Christ Church college so he could mooch off the university’s wealth. In 1645, the Bodleian librarians wouldn’t let him borrow some books. Sleep-deprived Oxford students claim to have seen the headless ghost of King Charles I roaming the upper reading room and tearing books off the shelves out of vengeance. Talk about petty.

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