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Europe’s first grand hotel vowed European royalty with electric lights, hydraulic lifts and air conditioning when it opened in 1865. The Langham hotel, London was the largest and the most modern hotel around the city and it still pulls fans from around the world, including more than its fair share of celebrities. During its early days it was frequented by some of the most iconic celebrities that included Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Napoleon III, Czech composer Dvorák and it was one of the most favourite spots for the British royal family as well.
From 2004 to 2009 several renovations took place in the hotel to restore it to its original form with the total estimated cost of up to 80 million USD.
The hotel was featured in many movies and tv shows. However, it has also been frequented by a number of ghosts.
The most common sighting is of a man in victorian evening wear in ROOM 333,who apparently appears only during October. Room 333 is said to be one of the most haunted rooms around the world. Another guest claimed to have seen the figure of a man in military attire standing by the window of the fourth floor who is apparently believed to be the ghost of a soldier who killed himself by jumping from the same window. There’s a ghost butler that vanishes when it’s approached. It is also believed that the ghost of Napolean 3, another former guest haunts the basement of the hotel.
A BBC reporter while staying in room 333 was awoken at night and he saw a ball of light moving towards him. It slowly started transforming itself into an almost complete human form. The reporter ran out of the room and took a colleague with him back to the room, the figure was still there but was slowly fading away. During one of their stays there, the English cricket team were troubled by the spooky occurrences and they became convinced that the hotel was haunted. Taps would turn on/off by themselves. They also felt a strong presence with them during their stay at the hotel. They were always woken up by sounds and could not sleep at all. Stuart broad and his wife were particularly most affected by these occurrences and they went to sleep in another teammates twin room. The next day the team requested a change of hotel because they could not sleep at all.
The hauntings at the hotel were first reported in the 1970s but the management is not afraid of the reputation of the hotel being labelled as haunted. Langham is still one of the most beautiful hotels and it still hosts some of the most famous celebrities.
