Yahoo News 'Haunted' mansion set for revival as paranormal tourist attraction and hotel
Woolton Hall, a once magnificent manor house in Liverpool, could be set for an unconventional revival. The grand estate on Speke Road in Woolton was constructed in 1704 and later sold to affluent politician Richard Molyneux, the 1st Viscount Molyneux.
The classical structure underwent a significant refurbishment 68 years later under the guidance of renowned architect Robert Adam. For its initial two centuries, it served as a residence for the wealthy and influential, including the Earl of Sefton and ship owner Frederick Richards Leyland.
However, the 20th century saw the building put to various uses, such as a private school and an army hospital. It narrowly escaped demolition in the 1980s and was subsequently granted Grade I-listed status, reports the Liverpool Echo.
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There were plans for it to become a retirement home, but they never came to fruition and the hall was left to decay. The building was hit by a huge fire in 2019 and was added to Historic England's Heritage at Risk register as a Category A site two years later.
In recent years, it has become a hotspot for break-ins, vandalism and urban explorers, who have captured its faded grandeur, including a main hall with a marble floor, a tapestry room and an ornate staircase.
There is a new chapter on the horizon for the building. A Liverpool entrepreneur wishes to use the hall as a paranormal tourist attraction called 'My Haunted Mansion' - and ultimately as a hotel for ghost hunters.
Harry Achilleos, 48, from Mossley Hill, is the founder of the 'My Haunted' project, which he runs with colleagues Brett Jones and Danny Moss. The company has set up a 'haunted' hotel in The Old King's Head in Chester and also runs a 'haunted' manor in Pennsylvania.
Having worked in the food and drink business, Harry decided to change career and set up the project, giving people the chance to look for anything ghostly in historic buildings.
After finding success in Chester and in the States, he wanted to bring his business to Liverpool and identified Woolton Hall as a site. His family catered for events at the manor house, so he has always had an interest in the building - and its supposed paranormal history.
Harry told the ECHO: "Our family had a fish and chip shop in Woolton and we used to deliver food to Woolton Hall back in the day for people that resided there at the time. The owner would get food delivered when there were parties on."
"I used to speak to people about the hauntings in Woolton Hall, so I was keen to get back in and have a look at the place."
"It closed down in around 2005. Urban explorers were breaking in all the time, smashing the windows to get in to record content, kids were getting in to set fires, they absolutely trashed the place."
"It was in dire straits when I took over a couple of months ago. The agreement with the owners is that I secure the place, I put the cameras in to stop any further vandals getting in and any further dilapidation."
"Me and my team have cleaned it all up, so there's no debris. It's not in perfect condition, the windows are all boarded up."
"We've done two or three investigations there and the place is insane from the stories of monks who walk the cellar - they've been seen, apparently a pregnant woman fell down the stairs and she haunts the place, there's loads of sinister stories."
"We're trying to bring the place back to life without making any structural changes. We secured it six weeks ago. I'm dealing with planning officers and I'm hoping to open this year - in time for Halloween. "
The 'My Haunted' experience sees guests come into the building, where they are set tasks by the staff. It is all recorded, allowing Harry and his team to determine whether there is any paranormal activity.
He explained: "When these urban explorers go into Woolton Hall, they all claim it's one of the most haunted places they've ever been into. So, we've been there two times, we heard disembodied footsteps walking right in front of us, while we've just started recording."
"We've been cleaning the place up and heard a knock on the doors when there's nobody about, we've heard voices. This is without the cameras fully covering the whole experience."
"I'm pretty sure we're going to capture some really amazing things. We're there to work out if it is legitimately haunted and find an explanation either way. That's kind of what we do."
"People will arrive around 8.30pm. We've got to deem the place to be completely safe in order to have people staying over."
"There's no electricity in the place at the moment, there's no water. If deemed ok by the council, then people would be able to stay over at night and we can be a hotel. If not, it would finish around 2 or 3am."
Harry added: "We have cameras in every corner to capture everything. We set experiments for guests to do, we sit in the control room, monitoring everything."
"They'll have a walkie-talkie on them and they get in touch with us to say 'right, we've just heard a voice', so we can then replay that moment from any angle within the building and determine whether it could be outside noise population, them imagining things or actually paranormal."
"But we spend 90% of the time debunking situations and giving them a rational explanation. That 10% is when you get liquid gold when you might see some poltergeist activity or hear a voice phenomenon."
"You'll have the gold moments when you see an apparition or a disembodied figure walking past. We've caught that four times in the hotel (Chester) and once in the manor (USA) so far, so that's what we're hoping to achieve."
"But we also want to bring back such an iconic building and restore it to its former glory. We want to have it used and not have these vandals breaking in."
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