Brighton Fringe Review: GHOST WALKS OF THE LANES, The Druid's Head

“We don’t serve spirits after eleven”

Ghost Walk of the Lanes is an eighty-minute tour of “Brighton’s oldest and most haunted quarter,” with a storyteller dressed in a Victorian costume leading audience members around several historic sites of the city, stopping and telling stories, ringing a bell to lead the way. We begin at the Druid’s Head, where we are greeted by Layton, our tour guide for the evening. After everyone has arrived, Layton brings us to the Town Hall, where our tales begin. 

Each stop follows a similar pattern. Layton will begin by telling us the history of the spot we are at, telling us what era in history we are discussing, ranging from Roman to Victorian times. We are introduced to someone whose spirit is rumoured to be haunting the location, like a monk or the lover of George IV. Each has its own tragic tale, which Layton tells with great respect while still keeping an air of suspense around the story to draw the group in. He also uses some props that he declares to be “eBay’s finest” including a skull, a fire poker and a cat plush.

Unsurprisingly, many of the haunted locations visited are pubs, as they tend to be the place where lots of terrible things happen. These include The Pipeline, which is home to a trickster ghost of a fisherman (the building used to be a pair of old fishing huts), The Black Lion and The Black Lion Lane, the home to what is known as the “Amorous Apparition,” The Cricketers, which may have been home to Jack the Ripper for a time and The Druid's Head, the site of a stone circle thousands of years ago. One of the highlights for me was the heartbreaking story of the bricked-up doorway on Meeting House Lane and the ghost of the Grey Lady, a story that Layton tells with great respect and sombreness. 

There was never a moment in which anyone in my group looked genuinely scared - the general atmosphere was one of curiosity and fascination, particularly with some of the grislier murders. Along with the spooky stories, Layton also tells some jokes to lighten the mood, including an entire stop dedicated to a cat that leads to a terrible pun about a ghost cat in a pub. 

Ghost Walk of the Lanes is a great ghost tour for people of all ages, mixing history and hauntings together in engaging tales that will have you looking at Brighton in a new light. 

Ghost Walk of the Lanes ran from 3 May to 1 June at The Druid’s Head.

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