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to death. The ghost stood there at least ten seconds whilst the joiner packed up

his tools, locked up and left.

He had the same terrifying experience one more time when working late, but this

time he wanted something done about it - he wouldn’t go back into the room until

it was, and John, my friend told him he would see what he could do.

I was quite interested and said I would come over that minute to have a

look around.

I followed John up the wide staircase and we both stood at the threshold of the

very large and extremely untidy room. The tubular lights were the old fashioned

type and were very noisy indeed. As my eyes roamed over the clutter and the

long benches with unfinished wooden items standing in inch deep sawdust and

wood shavings, I noticed at the far end untidily boarded up, broken windows

overlooking a very overgrown garden.

Suddenly I heard the sound of old fashioned dance music all around me,

something perhaps from the early part of the century.

‘Can you hear that?’ I asked John.

He stared at me, his eyes wide.

‘What?’ he asked.

‘Dance music. Very old fashioned though,’ I told him.

‘Well this was the Scala dance hall- the Danse-de-Luxe, you know,’ he said.

‘Really!’ I was amazed that such an awful place could have been a dance hall. I

had only ever heard of the Danse-de-Luxe by reputation, for my mother had told

me I was never to go there when I was in my teens. I had then no idea even of

where it was.

I told John that my husband Alan and I would come back on Saturday at one

o’clock and we would perhaps be able to see what it was all about.

When we arrived on Saturday there were three people who all worked in the

building and including the joiner, waiting for us. We went into the room and the

three stayed by the door whilst I cleared the thick layer of dust, sawdust and

shavings off the top of the only seat available for Alan to sit on. Continue...