WESTGATE PAVILION
Report
By Denise Bottali
The Westgate Pavilion Investigation took place on Friday 29th February, 2008.
The site of the Theatre was originally a Bandstand built in 1903 and named the Coronation Bandstand in celebration of the succession of Edward VII.
During WW1 it was converted into rest quarters for the Royal West Kent Regiment.
In 1925 the bandstand was rebuilt to become the Westgate Pavilion Theatre , originally with 600 seats.
From the 1970’s the Theatre became a Bingo Hall, closing during the 1990’s and becoming derelict. In 2001 a Charitable Trust was set up to restore and reopen the Pavilion as a Theatre.
We would like to thank our amiable host, Ted, for staying with us during the evening.
Members of the Isle of the Dead who took part in the investigation were Denise, Michelle, Joan, Wendy, Angela, Brian, Alex, Lorraine and Neil.
We all arrived for the investigation at 8pm and due to the layout of the Theatre decided to stay as one group whilst investigating.
The weather for the evening was very windy and this had to be taken into consideration whilst noting activity.
The temperature inside the Theatre at the beginning of the evening was 18.8c.
Before the Investigation began, various members of the team had already begun to pick up on spirit activity.
Most of the team straight away sensed an elderly man standing on the stairs by the fire escape to the left of the stage.
Michelle believed this to be a man of about 80 who at one time was the Caretaker.
Michelle , Wendy and Lorraine also all sensed a boat accident and that bodies had been brought down these same stairs from this accident. Michelle also picked up on an old Sea Captain, of the name Taylor, who came from a time before the Pavilion was built.
On looking around the Sound Room, a strong aroma of oranges could be smelt by all.
After holding a circle of protection for all members, we began the Investigation at 9pm.
Straight away all members could smell what could only be described as toast.
The first vigil of the evening was a silent one where our Investigators took up positions throughout the Theatre.
Sitting on the stage ,Denise sensed the name of Morgan Stanley (or visa versa), who was connected to a watch tower previously on this site or near to it and had her head patted.
Also sitting on the stage, Brian sensed a female presence in the area around the Ladies Toilet. He also felt a gentleman walk from the left of the stage to the right.
From the stage he could see a girl walking in the entrance foyer, about 14-15 years of age, in Victorian or early Edwardian summer dress wearing a boater hat with a ribbon hanging down the back. The young girl was joined by a male, 35ish, with black hair, long sideburns and wearing a dark suit and bowler hat. He also got the strong scent of flowers, but this was masked by a strong scent of cat urine.
Denise saw a lady in the same are of the foyer, wearing a big flouncy hat, she went by the name of Floss and Denise believes she follows the Pavilion's Manager, Ron, about the place.
Joan was sitting to the right of the stage and heard a male laugh to the area of the stage. She then heard someone say 'shut up'
Angela, sitting behind the screen to the right of the stage picked up on an oppressive feeling. She was also given the names of Molly and Albert and the song 'I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts'. Angela also felt a sharp pain across her temple and wanted to cry as she felt very sad.
Wendy heard someone audibly whisper to her 'Stars' and the name John Armstrong. When she asked him what he did he said 'teacup' and 'Put lights out'.
She also felt that there had at some time been a lot of damage to the Theatre, possibly due to neglect or the weather.
Picture showing Michelle with light anomaly to centre
Both Michelle, who was sitting in the centre of the Theatre, and Brian, on stage, sensed a pain in their chests, likening the pain to that of a heart attack.
Michelle also saw a young girl dancer, about 15 years old, of small frame and very slender, with pig tails in her hair, on stage and a German shepherd dog, thought to be a guard dog.
Impressions of war wounded were given to Michelle and a lady called Mary who had watched many shows at the Theatre and had helped with the costumes. She used to live above a Wool Shop in Westgate.
At 9.45 pm we ended our first vigil and took a break.
During this break Wendy took some photos in the Entrance Foyer after sensing the presence of a lady in a floaty white dress. Wendy said out loud 'Come on Valerie' not realising that she had said this name.
Brian got poked in the head and was given the names of Elizabeth and Edward.
At 10.30pm we re-started our investigation with all Investigators sitting around a table on stage to use a Planchette. The temperature was 17.5c.
Neil kindly offered to photograph this part of the investigation for us.
We asked any spirits present to push the planchette towards Brian to answer questions as yes and towards Joan for no.
Unfortunately the response to questions from spirit via the planchette was unsuccessful.
Lorraine felt that one spirit wanted to move the planchette but was unable to due to being hurt in an accident.
Brian felt that a male spirit was standing behind Joan, looking over her right shoulder, to see what we were doing.
At this timeWendy and Michelle began to feel very hot and the temperature had risen to 18.8c. Wendy asked the spirits present if they could raise the temperature even higher. It increased to 19.6c, 19.9c and 20.1c. Wendy then thanked the spirits and said that they could now stop affecting the temperature. This then stayed at 20.1c.
Denise felt a very sharp pain shoot across her chest and Alex said he had experienced the same feeling earlier in the evening.
Brian believed that the pain affecting Denise had come from an older gentleman who had fallen down due to a heart attack.
At 11pm we took another break.
During this break Denise and Michelle walked the corridor behind the stage and felt a huge rush of energy following up behind them.
We began our 3rd vigil at 11.30pm, the temperature being 17.8c.
Denise, Wendy and Neil sat in the entrance foyer.
Wendy saw a light anomaly move around the Box office.
Neil felt that a female energy welcomed people as they entered the Theatre through the foyer. He also picked up the name George.
Through the foyer glass windows, Denise saw a figure walk from
the stage to the right, when on asking if anyone in the Theatre had seen this, no-one had.
At 12 midnight, for some unknown reason, Joan’s mobile phone alarm went off, despite her never having set it.
Picture showing mist to left of staircase leading to sound room
Angela saw a dull mist appear on the stage behind Brian, to his left. Along with Michelle, she also saw a figure walk across the stage.
Alex picked up on the names of Gladys or April..
After another break at 12.15pm, the group (less Alex and Lorraine)
returned to the stage and sat around a table for a vigil using a glass for yes/no answers.
The temperature had risen to 24.7c.
It was decided to ask any spirits present to move the glass towards Wendy for yes and Angela for no.
During this experiment it was established that a male energy was present and he had been an actor and could tap dance. At the beginning of the evening, we had light heartedly had some fun on the stage, including trying to tap dance. The spirit confirmed he had been with us during this time. He also indicated to us that he had known a Tommy Tucker, a musical star from the 1940’s,
A second spirit presence was made known, another male, who confirmed that he had been seen by Michelle earlier, and that she had drawn him (this was the last drawing of a series she had made during the evening).
The spirit then went on to let us know that he was a Caretaker and that he enjoyed the music of the Theatre.
The third spirit to make himself known to us was called Tom and he was with Neil and only wanted to speak to him. He had followed Neil from a previous investigation, (I would like to stress that this was not a TPI or Isle of the Dead Investigation), and that he was happy to be with Neil and wished to protect and guide him.
The fourth and final spirit to communicate with us using the glass first came across as a female energy called Joan, and that she was responsible for the smell of toast earlier, and also the pungent smell of ‘pot’ that was affecting some of us, from backstage. We established that in fact the spirit with us was a man and not a woman. He was a drag artist whose stage name was Joan Graham, and was very glamorous. He lived in Broadstairs. ‘Joan’ also confirmed for us that the ladies toilets were once used as the female dressing room. He thought it very funny that our Joan had hit Brian in a joking way, and thought that Brian had deserved it. He wore a brunette wig with the same colour hair as our Joan. It was also noted by the spirit that our Joan was not wearing her ring and should have been.
At this stage we heard a shuffling behind the curtain and the spirit Joan indicated to us that we were being watched by the spirit of a stage hand, who was unhappy with what we were doing.
We asked if the spirits wanted us to stop the communication, to which they replied yes.
Shortly after this, we tried to experiment with table tilting on the stage but had very little response, although once we had all removed our hands from the table, it did make quite a jolting move.
Due to the weather outside getting increasingly worst, it was decided by all that for the safety of our Investigators, it was best to finish the investigation, and we closed the evening off with a circle of protection.
We had a very enjoyable night at the Pavilion and wish to thank the staff for allowing us to carry out our Investigation.
It was very interesting to note that only Denise knew of the history of the Pavilion.
Early in the investigation, Wendy had sensed that the Pavilion had become derelict for a while.
Also, Michelle was made aware of the energy of wounded souls.
Could these of been soldiers of the Royal West Kent Regiment?
Ted also informed us that there had been reported sightings of a lady walking across the stage. Several of our Investigators mentioned movement of this kind.
It would be very interesting if the staff of the Pavilion or indeed anyone else could verify any of the information that we believe was given to us from spirit.
