Former infirmary · Museum · Reported hauntings
Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery
Peterborough · Cambridgeshire
A Georgian building filled with local history – and stories of a grey figure glimpsed on the staircase, unexplained footsteps and voices after dark.
Photo: David P Howard / Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
A real former infirmary where documented history and enduring ghost stories occupy the same rooms.
Peterborough Museum’s Georgian home once served as the city’s infirmary. Its galleries now explore archaeology, art, local life and the building’s medical past, including a surviving Victorian operating theatre. The museum also embraces its haunted reputation. Its best-known story concerns Sergeant Thomas Hunter, an Australian soldier who died here from wounds received in France in 1916 and is now associated with reports of a grey figure on the main staircase.
Your visit at a glance
Visitor information verified 8 August 2026Some events and exhibitions cost extra
Last entry 15:30
Footsteps, whispers and a figure on the stairs
The museum openly shares the stories attached to the building and makes it available for organised paranormal investigations. These are reported experiences rather than a single settled account – and that is part of what makes the place so intriguing.
The grey figure
The museum associates repeated glimpses of a grey apparition on or near the main staircase with Sergeant Thomas Hunter.
Accounts describe a fleeting figure: seen for a moment, then gone when the witness looks again.Footsteps and whispers
Other reports collected by the museum include unexplained footsteps and voices or whispers in otherwise quiet areas.
The museum presents these as part of its living body of visitor and investigator stories.Objects that seem to move
The Vaults have their own stories, including barrels apparently shifting without an obvious cause.
Private paranormal investigation groups can hire the museum after hours, giving the building’s reputation an unusual modern afterlife.The Lonely ANZAC – and the mystery that followed
Sergeant Thomas Hunter’s presence in the former infirmary is documented. A member of the 10th Australian Infantry Battalion, he died here on 31 July 1916 after being wounded in France. His service and death are commemorated in Peterborough.
The later staircase encounters belong to a different kind of record: sightings and experiences shared by the museum, visitors and investigators. The association with Hunter gives the grey figure a name and a moving human story, while its identity remains open to interpretation.
Centuries of history behind the stories
The building and collections offer plenty to explore before the lights go out.
The former infirmary
The Georgian building served as Peterborough’s infirmary, and its medical history remains visible in the museum today.
Victorian operating theatre
One of the country’s last surviving historic operating theatres preserves original equipment and stories of the people who lived, worked and died here.
Seven permanent galleries
Archaeology, local history, art, wildlife and the Norman Cross prisoner-of-war camp broaden the visit well beyond the building’s ghost lore.
Start with the galleries, then follow the building’s older layers
This is a proper city museum rather than a staged haunted attraction. Visit during normal hours for the collections and historic spaces, or check the museum’s programme if an organised evening investigation is what draws you.
A simple way to explore
Allow time for the permanent galleries as well as the former infirmary spaces.
Begin with the building
Look for the surviving medical spaces and imagine the years when these rooms formed a working infirmary.
Find Thomas Hunter’s story
Pause at the main staircase and place the later sightings alongside the documented life behind the name.
Explore the collections
Continue through archaeology, local life, Norman Cross, art and the temporary exhibitions.
Getting there
The museum is in Peterborough city centre, around four minutes on foot from Queensgate bus station and six minutes from the railway station.
Accessibility & facilities
A step-free entrance is available through the staff car park to the right of the main entrance. Lifts serve the principal gallery floors.
Continue through East Anglia’s stranger stories
Pair the museum with a riverside inn whose ghost acquired an identity of her own, or an ancient earthwork shaped by history and folklore.
The Old Ferry Boat Inn
Visit a working riverside pub where a dark flagstone and the story of Juliet Tewsley have become inseparable from the building.
View destination →Thetford Castle Hill
Climb one of England’s largest medieval earthwork mounds and explore the legends that gathered around this unusual urban landmark.
View destination →Walk the staircase and decide what lingers
Check current opening and exhibitions before travelling, then explore more researched mysterious places with ParaMaps.