Chester:
England's Most Haunted City
The
Lost Crypt
 Close
to the heart of the walled city of Chester, on Bridge
Street, is Booklands bookshop whose stone-arched
medieval crypt is allegedly home to a ghostly child.
The shop occupies a three storey, Grade I listed,
17th-century building not far from Chester's central
High Cross. But the lower ground floor is older
still: the 13th-century stone crypt is built half
into the earth, with the unique and unusual Rows
walkways directly overhead.
Curiously, the ancient crypt was lost - bricked
up and filled with rubble, until rediscovered by
Victorian developers in the late 1800s. Now restored
and brimming with books, it still retains an ancient
air. At the rear of the crypt, beside the counter,
is a narrow, half-hidden stone staircase leading
to the upper storeys. Staff warily confirm that
it's still haunted today by the ghost of a young
apprentice boy who long ago fell to his death on
the slippery stone. Though when asked if they've
seen him, they refuse to say.
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