Little Chef of horrors.
Something sinister is stirring in a boarded up, blacked out room above an Ashford restaurant. For years, staff at the Little Chef in London Road have witnessed strange goings-on. Now supervisor Susan Miles and her husband Johnathan are conducting a full investigation of their own. Their mission is to unravel the mystery of a cafe owner who some say hanged himself, and to get to the bottom of George, the poltergeist who staff believe is responsible for the bumps in the night. “We don’t know his real name, we just named him George,” said Susan.
“He turns on the hand dryer in the toilets, he moves bread around from shelf to shelf, and when there is only two people working, he opens and closes doors at the back of the restaurant. We’ve been told that the restaurant used to be a cafe called The Bell and that the owner hanged himself. The flat upstairs used to be occupied, now it’s just our storeroom. But there is one room which is blacked out and boarded up with a false wall. We know there’s a staircase leading up to it, but we can’t get to it. My husband and I have just about had enough, so we’re going to visit some museums to see if anyone has any information about the building’s past.”
The couple have been looking through archives to see if they can find anything and are willing to try anything. Assistant manager Joanne Till said: “We are trying to locate one of the previous owners, because this has to be sorted out. Staff are scared of going up there. Both myself and a colleague once saw a ghostly figure by the sink. And once a member of staff came in and the credit card machine was in the middle of the floor with credit card slips all around it. The thing is, that particular member of staff had personally locked up the restaurant the night before having done a back-to-back shift – explain that.”
Staines and Ashford News, 14th January 1999.
Was 542 London Road, Stanwell, Ashford (likely not there any more? looks like a house).