UPDATE – This attraction is now closed and has been relocated to central Nottingham
Taking a peek into the paranormal is certainly a new experience for me. Nevertheless, I took the plunge and visited the Haunted Museum in Nottingham, UK.
Being the type of person who has to see something to believe it I still keep an open mind.
I frequently binge-watch Zak Bagans Deadly Possessions series and love learning about haunted artifacts.
For those who haven’t seen the show, the premise revolves around cursed objects and their history that the host Zak Bagans wishes to own and add to his Haunted Museum collection based in Las Vegas.
After a bit of research, I came across the UK Ghost Hunts website who like Zak participate in similar paranormal investigations.
It is through that page that I discovered the Haunted Museum. The building is managed by Marie and Steve Wesson who are part of the Ghost Hunts online paranormal show Haunted Adventures that you can check out right now on Amazon Prime.
Location
The original premises closed its doors back in 1959.
What was once an old cinema the building was restored to its former glory by the team.
The team behind the museum were specifically looking for the perfect building that was haunted and practical.
Spread over 4 floors and with 26 rooms the Haunted Museum in Nottingham is full of surprises around every corner.
You can see the tremendous work and dedication that has gone into restoring the building.
From the outside, the building itself looks relatively small. As soon as you step inside it seems to spread out endlessly.
This Tardis effect that the building has is quite peculiar and every inch of space within the museum has been taken advantage of.
In addition to being a museum, there is a projector set up in the main auditorium that plays horror films every Thursday night.
It’s nice that they paid homage to the history of the building whilst matching the content being shown on the big screen to the creepy artifacts that lie within.
Haunted Museum Tours
Once you step foot into the building you walk straight into the cafe’ area.
Selling various hot drinks and food I found the prices to be extremely reasonable.
Usually, museums love to charge high attraction prices but that’s certainly not the case here.
Make sure you take some cash with you however as they don’t have a card machine on site.
Whilst the museum itself is free to explore its the restricted area tour you really want to check out.
This tour involves a full walkthrough of the building and some incredibly well-themed rooms along the way.
The tour lasts around 45 minutes and once it was finished I felt as thou the value was seriously underpriced.
It was an absolute bargain for such a creepy and immersive tour.
Without spoiling the experience too much we will warn you that you will indeed see real-life medical skeletons.
If you’re a little squeamish beware.
With such items on display as haunted dolls from the infamous Isla De Las Munecas (Doll Island) and Martha the infamous haunted doll, you’re guaranteed to get chills!
For me personally, the Dybbuk box room was certainly the room that hit me the hardest.
The room had been well themed but the mannequins placed in the room did make the room feel more cheesy than spiritual.
A Dybbuk box is a cursed box that is said to contain a demon. The word Dybbuk is derived from the Hebrew word to’Adhere’ or ‘Cling’.
The word describes a malevolent wandering spirit that enters and possesses the body of a living person until exorcized.
Note: The only two rooms where photography is not allowed is the Dybbuk box room and Martha’s doll room.
Our knowledgable tour guide provided detailed background stories and answered every question (if albeit skeptical ones from myself) with ease.
Once the restricted access tour had come to a conclusion we were free to roam around the museum.
The museum contained various dolls, ouija boards and haunted artifacts including a plague victims skull and a Victorian hearse.
The hearse has been a participant in some interesting paranormal activity since its arrival. If you haven’t seen the creepy video already click here.
I walked out still somewhat skeptical but some events within the museum affected me and my also skeptical friend and we just can’t quite explain them…
Paranormal Activity We Experienced
First and foremost most of the ‘happenings’ that affected us could have plausible reasons and explanations but certainly not all of them.
The sheer frequency of said events and the unusual feelings experienced within can’t be explained.
Once we entered the room containing the Isla De Las Munecas dolls we started to take pictures.
Without hesitation, the flash on both of our phone cameras came on simultaneously when taking a picture.
We both own iPhones and you have to physically turn the flash on by clicking a button in the bottom corner (when held horizontally) this button was never touched by either of us and freakishly the cameras both flashed at the same time.
Even stranger though, however, were some of the pictures captured in that room.
My skeptical brain would look at that picture and say that the white beam of light in the left side of the image is from a spotlight.
That would make perfect sense.
However, they were no lights above this doll whatsoever, it was in a darker corner of the room…
In this picture, you can clearly see a double reflection of me taking a non-flash picture of this doll in a glass cabinet.
But the two other faces just can’t be explained.
There were no pictures behind us or anything to reflect in the glass.
Very creepy indeed.
How many faces do you see?
In the Martha doll room, I experienced a weird sense of warmth whereas the rest of the building was freezing cold.
Also in the attic my friend claimed that his ears felt as thou he was underwater and we heard strange unexplainable noises in that particular room in addition to a door knock.
There were only two of us and the tour guide up there and no one else upstairs at that moment in time as shown on CCTV cameras. Weird…
Overall
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the Haunted Museum.
The staff are incredibly friendly and the tour itself is certainly one you must experience.
A perfect tour for the inquisitive mind and at such a great price point you really can’t complain.
The whole building has an atmosphere that I can’t quite put into words. It’s well worth a visit!
Review by Sean Evans
