A ghostly video from a Broadstairs bookshop-bar raised questions about the paranormal, only to reveal a surprising explanation, writes NEIL NIXON
Kent’s various paranormal legends have a habit of finding those who go looking for them.
The following is a personal tale I stumbled into randomly over Christmas in 2022 whilst browsing second-hand paranormal books in Broadstairs.
That said, the bookshop in question is something of an oddity in itself.
The Chapel Bar and Bookshop (aka The Chapel) is pretty much what you’d imagine, a former chapel converted into a bar in which the vast abundance of wall space in the high-ceilinged building is rammed with second-hand books, providing an additional income stream for the bar and entertainment for the customers.
Negotiating the supernatural stock required a journey to an unfrequented corner, and a member of staff who was passing soon got talking to me about the paranormal.
I made it clear I wrote and spoke on the subject. She told me I might be in the right place, and that had nothing to do with the books on sale.
Specifically, she showed me an amazing video gathered from the bar’s security cameras in the early hours of the morning the previous summer. The footage was certainly intriguing.
Over a matter of a few seconds around 3am, a camera positioned above and behind the bar captured a beer glass detaching itself from a shelf, apparently pausing fractionally in mid-air, and falling rapidly to the floor where it shattered.
There were rumours of a ghostly presence in the place and – apparently – other witnesses to strange goings-on. A notable sceptic in this department was the only person prone to staying overnight in the venue, the manager who’d established the place and who remains to this day.
All told, the paranormal rumours and the video were – if anything – good for business, and the bar was notably enthusiastic when it came to celebrating Halloween.
I’ve developed a fair amount of scepticism myself over the years, but having downloaded the video after the member of staff sent it my way, I was struggling to make sense of it.
In the clip, the place was deserted; the security cameras had stayed on all night. So, whatever had happened to cause the glass to become airborne wasn’t down to activity from staff or customers.
I ended up sharing the footage with a few others. I had the highest hopes for CJ Romer, then chair of ASSAP and notably experienced where videos of ghostly activity were concerned.
He – at least – came back with something plausible and an observation that had eluded everyone else.
He noticed the briefest flicker of light around the fringes of the footage, suggesting it might indicate a particular kind of outside interference. The same thing had occurred to me, but I’d missed what he spotted.
The bar and bookshop stands in the old and notably narrow High Street in Broadstairs. This is a route built for horses and people walking. In the absence of another road through the centre of town, it now accommodates all manner of road traffic.
CJ’s suggestion was that the fleeting light was a headlight, and the vehicle in question likely a heavy truck with enough weight to shake the floor and dislodge a glass.
Particularly if the glass was placed fractionally closer to the edge of the shelf than all the others.
It struck me he was right. A fact I relayed to the member of staff who’d sent me the video.
She thanked me, though to the best of my knowledge the ghost legend persists, and those customers expressing any preference about paranormal activity like it that way.
It should be noted that in a recent phone conversation with the founder and manager, he poured scorn on the notion that traffic down the High Street would ever move so powerfully as to cause this event.
He also noted that a paranormal investigation took place at The Chapel early in 2025, producing inconclusive results.
One takeaway from this for me is the discovery of a particular brand of paranormal research I’d highly recommend. You may have to check this out for yourself, but equipping yourself with a fresh pint of beer is essential.
So too, placing it in the corner of a table in a pub that might be prone to disruption by way of floor shaking from nearby traffic.
It helps greatly if the pub is quiet at the time, and you can muster the patience, let the pint settle, and simply study it as a large vehicle goes by.
Granted, sooner or later you’ll be unable to resist picking it up and draining it to the point it’s no further use for paranormal research purposes.
Have you ever experienced strange occurrences in Broadstairs or another haunted pub? Share your stories in the comments below!
