Weird goings-on in typewriter showroom.
Things that go bump in the night are nothing compared with the ghostly goings-on at an Aberdeen office equipment firm’s showrooms. Staff and workers at Typewriter Services and Equipment showroom in Belmont Street have experienced many unexplained happenings. Footsteps are regularly heard plodding across a deserted showroom. A lift with no power mysteriously rose two floors overnight. A workman returning to the empty building, where power had been switched off, found an electric kettle boiling. A heavy garage door has also been seen opening, apparently by itself, solid 6 ft. desks have moved by several feet during th enight and steel filing cabinets have moved out from the walls.
The old building in the heart of Aberdeen has undergone extensive renovations since Typewriter Services took it over last year. Part of it dates back to 1792 and since its restoration it has achieved fame, both locally and throughout Scotland, for the beauty of its ornamental plasterwork, vaulted ceilings and mosaic floors.
Staff and workers, most of whom are not the types to believe in ghosts, have hesitated about working late now, and some have even refused to enter the building after nightfall. Director Bill Duncan, 24 years in the Army and a retired R.S.M., heard a loud crash and footsteps on Sunday while he was working alone. He went to investigate but found nothing broken, and no sign of anyone.
Electrician Richard Porter was the man who saw the garage doors opening themselves, and everyone was puzzled, and a bit apprehensive, when they discovered the goods lift had moved during the night. Earlier it had been made inoperable by electricians who had removed the fuses and locked it into position on the ground floor. The Marie Celeste situation continued when workmen left the building at night, making sure the main electrical switches for the whole building were cut off. One returned two hours later to find the premises ablaze with lights, the doors still locked… and an electrical kettle just coming off the boil. No one else was anywhere in the building, and perhaps not surprisingly, neither of the men are prepared to enter the building after office hours for any purpose whatever.
Research into the history of the premises has shown no sinister happenings during its life of almost 200 years, and no previous owners have ever reported mystic happenings. Managing director Mr John Williams has suggested, tongue in cheek, that perhaps the happenings can be attributed to the late Mr James Bannochie, the man who was responsible for the original beautiful decoration, and who, overjoyed to see his work uncovered once again, comes back periodically to view it. “He probably pauses en route to re-arrange the furniture and set out the showrooms more to his liking,” said Mr Williams.
The original part of the building in 1792 was the home of Dr James Gordon, famous as one of the pioneers of obstetrics and a lecturer at Aberdeen University. Another famous owner was Provost James Blalkie, who, in the early 19th century, bought the property as a house for his son on his marriage. It was later that it was enlarged to form the halls and showrooms by James Bannochie.
Mr Williams said no one is worrying too much about the ghost, nicknamed “William,” and he pointed out that the building has one of the most elaborate burglar alarm systems in the city. “As long as he does not trigger these off every night, causing inconvenience to management and the police, he is more than welcome to share the premises with us.”
Aberdeen Evening Express, 4th March 1978.