What staff and regulars at The Cosmopolitan have to say about one of Hartlepool's most haunted pubs

Tucked at the junction Middlegate and Durham Street on the Headland, the Cosmopolitan pub is steeped in history – and mystery.

Its building is thought to be centuries-old and it was a warehouse before it turned into a pub.

Since then, staff and customers have described spotting ghosts and seeing glasses fall without being touched.

At this time of the year, with Halloween celebrated on October 31 paintings of ghosts and witches adorn the windows while scary decorations add a spooky touch to the inside of the pub.

Some thrill-seekers book rooms at the hotel upstairs in the hope of experiencing a ghostly Halloween and pumpkin competition is set to take place.

"I would say it’s one of the most haunted pubs,” said landlady Jane Fleming.

"Different people have seen different things, so it’s made me think there’s something here.”

Jane, who is from the Headland, added: “A few glasses fall off and you think ‘nobody’s touched it, nobody’s been near it.”

Jane, 64, who has run the place for 20 years alongside husband Tim, was at first sceptical of the pub’s spooky reputation.

She had worked there as a barmaid when she was 18 and recalls that the owner’s dog would never go down the cellar.

"I never thought anything of it,” said Jane.

"When we got the place and I started going down, I didn’t think it was eerie or anything like that.

"We used to have people sleep there for charity nights. One night, this lad came up and said he was feeling dizzy. He reckons as soon as he went down there, the pressure went down, he just didn’t feel right.”

Staff members have also had eerie experiences at the pub.

Just over a year ago, staff member Robyn McLeod was left on her own to lock up when she heard tables getting dragged.

She panicked and rang her mum to help her lock up.

It turned out no tables had been moved – but a photo of a regular customer, who had passed away, appeared at an unusual place.

His picture had been missing for some time.

But that evening Robyn’s mum saw it in the same place where he used to stand.

"That was quite weird,” said Jane.

“We had a picture of him in the bar. It suddenly went missing. I wasn’t too happy about it, because we liked this man and I thought why would anyone destroy his picture.”

She continued: "When Robyn’s mum came along she couldn’t see anything. The only thing she could see was this picture in the corner where he used to stand.

"Apparently he was related to them.

"Whether that was just a coincidence and it’s fallen behind, I just don’t know, but it was there.” Jane said.

Unsurprisingly, the pub has attracted mediums in the past who have done investigations at the building. They reckon nuns are walking down the passages and a little boy sits on the steps.

The alleged ghost has also been spotted by Jane’s granddaughter, Reeva.

She was once was running around the pub and appeared to be talking to herself.

When Jane asked who she was talking to, Reeva, who was four at the time, said she was speaking to Michael.

"I said ‘Who’s Michael’. She said ‘He’s behind you, Nana,’”Jane recalled.

"This went on for weeks and weeks. In the past when we’ve had different mediums in, they have said there’s a little boy who sits on the steps."

Regular Brian Lilley, 74, from the Headland, was left fascinated by his own uncanny experience at the pub around five years ago.

"One afternoon I’m sitting here and the sun’s streaming through the window, creating darkness in the corner,” he said.

"There was like a gold ball hanging in the air, with the ropes and the tassels running down.

"There was a man sat next to me and I thought if I told him, it would disappear, and I was fascinated by it, watching it, just there.

"I watched it for five or six minutes, then I turned around to tell Mike, who was sitting here, and as soon as I said something to him, it disappeared and it moved away."

A man wearing a flat cap was also seen by a customer and Jane’s grandson, Flyn, when he was five.

Husband Tim was also spooked out when spotted a black figure in the corner one night when trying to lock up.

"He said to me the next day ‘There was something in that corner, I’m telling you’. He was adamant,” said Jane.

A Grey Lady is also said to patrol the cellars of the pub as well as the Headland graveyard and once made the corridors of St Hilda’s Hospital her own.

In the past, the Cosmopolitan building was used as stores for the Brunswick Brewery. In 1885, it was rebuilt from an older hotel on the site, taking in two cottages.

The now sealed tunnels which run between the pub and St Hilda’s Church are also thought to be haunted.

But Jane is yet to be completely convinced there are ghosts in the building.

“I don’t know whether I believe in them or not. Something would have to come right up to me and then I think I’d be out of here,” she laughed.