Halloween Post - The Grenadier, Belgravia

We've reached that time of year: pumpkins, trick or treat, and Michael Myers terrorising Haddonfield, yet again.
To mark Halloween 2021 I headed into London to search out one of the capital's most haunted pubs.

This was located in Belgravia, past a host of embassy buildings and into the mews, the 'private road' signs making you question for a moment if you're going the right way.
Somewhere down here was my destination apparently...

This is a pretty well hidden pub.
Not the kind of place you'd just happen to be passing.

Grenadier (18 Witton Mews, Belgravia, SW1X 7NR)

The pub was built in the 1720's and was originally an officers mess for the first royal regiment of foot guards, their barracks being next door.
It opened as a pub in 1818 as the Guardsman, later becoming the Grenadier.

Ghostly goings-on...
Many years ago, the guards would play cards in the basement room. 
A subaltern in the Foot Guards made the mistake of cheating, or more crucially getting caught cheating.  Fair to say his fellow players didn't take his dishonesty very well as they proceeded to beat him to death.

Although we don't really know his name, this unfortunate chap has become known as Cedric.
Being the victim of a somewhat harsh punishment, Cedric has hung around in the spirit world ever since.

There are reported icy blasts in September - thought to be the time of his demise.
Furniture moving of it's own accord.
Cat's paranormal senses being triggered,
and footsteps in empty rooms.



In recent years visitors have taken to pinning bank notes to the ceiling in the bar - supposedly to pay off Cedric's debt.

A 1982 TV crew rocked up to try their best to catch some evidence of the spooky goings-on, but didn't have much luck. 
But the pub owners had hired a photographer to take some shots of the TV crew in action.  Showing the staff the pictures, they were surprised to see the faint face of a young man with handlebar moustache in an upstairs window of an unused room.

Missing the September haunting dates, all was quiet and normal on my October visit.  I really should make these trips on dark, misty evenings.
The only chill that ran up my spine was upon hearing the cost of a pint of Timothy Taylor 'Landlord'.

Being a Greene King pub, GK IPA was the other cask ale available, whilst house-badged 'Grenadier' and 'Cedric's Debt' were 'coming soon'.  I'll wager they both tasted pretty much the same as the IPA.

There's not really much room for the drinker - just one high table by the front window and a few stools to perch on by ledges.  The rear rooms are fully set up for dining, but do look very stylish and cosy.  The pub has apparently been a bit of a fave of various celebs over the years.

A quick glance at WhatPub spoils the ghost story somewhat...  They attribute the tale of the disgraced card player to another pub of the same name nearby, which was closed by the 1830's.
But let's pretend we didn't see that.
The Grenadier is one of London's intriguing traditional pubs and deserves a good ghost story.