THE Palace Hotel holds many memories for Sandgrounders, but such is the mystery surrounding the place that many of the myths overshadow the facts.

Since its demolition in 1969 rumours have abounded of ghostly happenings and strange goings-on.

Indeed while the old Birkdale hotel was still in operation, visitors and staff would hear whisperings of spooky stories of death and intrigue.

One concerned the murder of a young girl at the hotel, while others felt that the tortured soul of the building’s architect, who, distraught at the inability of constructors to follow his plans, committed suicide, such was his devastation.

It was against this backdrop that Merseyside Anomalies Research Association (MARA) was invited to conduct research into the now non-existent Palace Hotel.

The main questions put to them asked whether the hotel had been built back-to-front, whether the architect did indeed commit suicide on discovery of the mistake, and whether the lift was haunted.

As workmen carried out enabling projects prior to demolition, a multitude of witnesses reported the continued movement of the hotel’s lift – despite the electricity being disconnected.

The fact that the hotel faced away from the sea led to speculation that it had been built back-to-front, but MARA, who have appeared on BBC’s Inside Out and North West Tonight, considered this “unlikely”.

They say the firm behind the design, Travis & Mangnall, went on to win many other competitions to design flagship buildings in seaside resorts such as Brighton and Colwyn Bay. Further delving in the company records seems to bust our second myth, that the architect committed suicide after discovering his project had been built the wrong way around.

MARA say their research indicates that none of the architects associated with Travis and Mangnall took their own lives.

But stories of the lift seem a little harder to confirm or deny.

There are accounts of the lift continuing to move, long after the electricity supply was cut and while the brakes were on.

MARA’s research suggests that if this continued for any length of time following disconnection, there would appear to be no logical explanation.

And we are left to make up our own minds about the ‘haunted’ lift.

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