24/02/2026
Walter hasn’t been out spooking around much since Christmas as it’s been far too cold but this weekend the sun finally made an appearance so Walter headed down to somewhere he’s been meaning to investigate for awhile as he’s heard there was once a whole lot of spooking going on in this historic place!😱
He took a trip to the site of Scarborough’s old Opera House on St.Thomas street (formerly Tanner street) Sadly the impressive Grade II listed theatre was demolished in 2004 and a new Casino costing £7 million now stands in its place.
The original theatre started out in 1876 as a wooden circus before being rebuilt as a permanent theatre in 1908. Over the years it’s been known by many names including Charles Adnam’s Grand Circus, Hengler’s Grand Cirque, Prince of Wales Circus, Zalvas Hippodrome, New Hippodrome, Opera House, Grand Opera House and Royal Opera House.
It’s also been the site of 34 deaths in total- 4 of which were said to be murders!
It’s said to be home to around 5 or 6 ghosts - whether these took up residence in the new casino or not I’m not sure - Here’s just some of the ghostly tales that have been documented over the years. Firstly a number of staff and actors working at the old theatre would claim that an unknown audience member would often appear in the stalls at rehearsals only to vanish without trace when approached.
Another story involves a theatre box positioned near the stage where sometimes people would witness the curtains which would be drawn back one minute then mysteriously close the next. This often happened when staff were completely alone in the theatre.
Backstage workers would sometimes report of a shadowy figure moving swiftly around for just afew seconds before disappearing.
The most famous ghost story regarding the old theatre is that of a boy who tragically fell to his death from the balcony onto the seats below.
On several occasions staff have found 3 of the tip-up style seats in the down position as if they were being sat on which is peculiar as these type of seats are designed to rise automatically when someone leaves their seat.
Some visitors have even described seeing the re-enactment of the boy falling. A female cleaner explained how she once saw the boy falling so clearly that she dropped her equipment in shock and ran over to where the boy had fell only to find no-one their but to her surprise one of the seats began to slowly rise up as if a weight had been on it.
By the early 70’s the theatre was run down and not as much in use, some groups were trying to save the theatre and would do fund raising and open days there. One day a lady called Leigh was invited by a friend to look around the theatre and had quite a fright in there! She explained how she first arrived at the theatre and it was in complete darkness and felt spooky, her friend then went backstage to switch on the lights when they both heard what sounded like chains clanking. They both witnessed a small black shape running along the spotlight beams, as it passed each one of the lights switched on in turn. Both were frozen to the spot in fear as to what they were witnessing before noticing the curtains on one of the balconies near the stage twitching as if something or someone had passed through it, both left the theatre baffled by what they had just seen.
Thanks so much to Mark Riley’s Haunted Scarborough book for these amazing stories.
I’d love to hear from anyone who has witnessed anything spooky in the casino, would be interesting if any of the ghosts who haunted the old theatre were still active.
