The veteran broadcaster Gilbert Harding was once a regular in the bar at this hotel. He was known in his heyday for being famously rude (at least on the air). He is of course now long dead.

The Royal Albert Hotel must have witnessed much over the years.  One of the stories its walls could tell is that of the lone death of Edmund Gurney on June 23rd 1888. Many will not be familiar with his name so first a little bit about this interesting man. He was a classical scholar, musician and student of medicine. He was a friend of William James the great psychologist and author of 'The Varieties Of Religious Experience'. He was a friend also to Samuel Butler and Geoge Elliot and many other intellectuals of the period. He was also one of the key members of the SPR (Society For Psychical Research). He is described rather bluntly in The Dictionary Of National Biography in 1890 as a philosophical writer.  In June 1888 he recieved a letter asking him to go to Brighton but tell no one, not even his wife. This he did and booked into the Royal Albion Hotel alone. In the morning he was discovered dead in bed with a chloroform soaked pad over his face.  The verdict by the coroner was accidental death as he was known to have used this means to relieve neuralgia. Others have seen his death as deliberately by his own hand as he was a known manic depressive. I think that we shall never know and speculation can never be anything but idle. How ironic if, as he devoted his life to psychical research, his ghost still haunts the hotel?

Should anyone have any stories in relation to hauntings at the hotel I would love to read them.

In a recent letter my relative Len Prossor, now resident in California and in his 90th decade, shared with me a Gilbert Harding memory. Len when he was starting out as a musician, played with a band at The Albion and recalls that Gilbert Harding always requested show tunes. Somehow that makes sense. I can imagine the easily irritated Mr Harding tapping his foot along to a good tune when he was in a good mood. When he was not in a good mood however watch out.

Yes, I've done the oujia board there and got plenty of spirits through. I have been a ghost hunter for 20 years.

Bridget, in passing did you know of Gurneys association with the place through his death?