Standing on Rosemount Viaduct in the centre of Aberdeen, His Majesty's Theatre is a grand granite-built property.
Originally designed in 1901, the theatre was intended to replace the nearby Her Majesty's Opera House which, despite redevelopment, could not accommodate the growing audience numbers that shows were attracting. His Majesty's opened in December 1906 and was an instant success with a sold-out pantomime running until the end of the year.
Over the following decades, the theatre continued to be a popular venue; however, ever-changing developments in production and audience expectations resulted in it falling into financial difficulties several times under different owners. In 1975, it was bought by Aberdeen City Council and underwent a complete refurbishment before re-opening. It underwent further refurbishment in the 1980s, with new facilities also being introduced, and was modernised again in 1999 and 2004.
The theatre has been said to have been haunted for many years. Reported activity includes disembodied footsteps being heard walking along a passageway from the balcony known as the Lambeth Walk. The ghost is also said to cause cold spots and to be rather fond of removing and hiding tools used by contractors carrying out work at the property, with them placing an item down only to find it no longer there when they try to retrieve it.
In April 2000, the Aberdeen Evening Express published an article titled 'Theatre Ghost Spooks Out Students', which tells of unexplained happenings encountered by a student theatre group while preparing for performances, including some hearing footsteps following them only to find no one there when they turned around. They became so scared, some are said to have almost pulled out of the show.
The activity encountered by the students was said to have started after they carried out the tradition of telling a ghost story before a show. They recalled a well-known tale of a stagehand named Jake, who was said to have been decapitated in an accident in 1942 when he tried to apply the brakes to a hoist that was running out of control, but his head was struck by the spinning handle as he did so.
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All of the paranormal activity experienced since has been attributed to Jake, with some reports of him being seen as a full-bodied apparition wearing a long brown dust coat. As always, care must be taken with such stories, especially when it is, in historic terms, a relatively recent death. After trawling the Newspaper Archives, I did find a report of the death. The article, published by the Dundee Evening Telegraph on 27th December 1943, states that the accident took place on the Saturday before, which would have been Christmas Day.
It tells that John Murray, aged 69, was using a hoist to lower horses to the basement after a circus. To put that into context, the stage door entrance for the theatre is to the rear, and a storey lower than the street entrance used by the audience. It seems something went wrong with the hoist and he was struck on the head, resulting in fatal injuries. Some reports suggest that too many horses had been loaded onto the hoist.
The article goes on to tell that John had worked at the theatre for 20 years and had always taken a keen interest in the daily activities, keeping records of every show and being able to recall the details when asked. It is therefore understandable that when he had such enthusiasm for the theatre, he may return from time to time to check up on his beloved place of work, and those involved with the theatre are said to be fond of their mischievous resident ghost.
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