In 1991 I got a job working in the Electricity Showroom in Kings mead, Farnborough. The shopping centre was built in the mid 70’s and was named after one of the houses that was either on the site or nearby, as I understand it. There was also a Queens mead and later a Princes mead.
I worked there between 1991 and about 1995 so for about 4 years.
From the shop floor two flights of stairs led to the top of the shop where there were two toilets, a kitchen area, a small training room and a large stock room full of TVs, Hair Dryers and other domestic appliances.
I happened to be in one of the toilets one day when I clearly heard some children playing, giggling and then going “la la la la” on the other side of the door. I was just drying my hands and curious as to why there might be children there I quickly opened the door to find the sound stopped and no children. I checked the other rooms and nothing. No children could get back there either as the door from the shop floor was protected by one of those door locks with a pin code.
One day I was making a cup of tea for a colleague and myself when the TV in the training room suddenly turned itself on full volume with nothing but white noise coming from it. The screen had that old snowy static effect you used to get on an untuned TV in the olden days. I was startled and ran in to see what was going on. I turned the TV off at the power button. Then something occurred to me, this TV just doesn’t do that when you turn it on. I turned it on again and sure enough the screen was blue with no sound coming from it. I tried some other channels and nothing changed just blue screen and silence. We only ever plugged a VCR in it for training purposes so there was no ariel feed.
About 5:30pm one day we were cashing up the days takings, after locking the front door, when I happened to look up and saw a white haired old man in a beige rain coat and wearing a cap standing in the middle of the showroom staring at a cooker. My first thought was we had locked some poor old fella in the shop so I grabbed the keys and opened the door that lead out of the cash area to the other door with the pin code. I opened this second door and went onto the shop floor. There was no sign of him. The doors were still locked but he was gone.
I spoke to the security guards there and they said things had been seen in the centre at night time. One example I remember them telling me was about an old man walking a dog in the aisle of Sainsburys that used to be opposite our shop. I wondered if this was the same man I had seen. I also heard about how the manager of Martins news agents came in one morning to find ALL the news papers laid out across the shop floor like afresh blanket of snow. No sign of anyone walking on them and, as he had put it, he was the last to leave and the first one in as he was the only one who had the keys.
Back at the showroom in the rear of the shop there were no windows so when we were setting the alarm and turning the lights out each night it was very dark. None of us liked being back there at the end of the day and it was always a relief to open those doors and step out into the light.
I spoke to someone who worked in a trainer shop that was actually next door to the showroom many years later and they said when it was quiet they used to get shoes that had LEDs in them to flash in response to questions. The shoes were on the shelf and no one was near them.