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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Lydia Chantler-Hicks

Andrew Lloyd Webber says he called in priest to banish poltergeist from his Belgravia home

Andrew Lloyd Webber has claimed he called in a priest to help deal with a mischievous poltergeist that was living in his central London home.

The composer - famed for his musical scores for stage hits including Cats, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, and Phantom of the Opera - made the revelation in an interview with The Telegraph.

He said he has been sharing his 19th-century Belgravia home with a spirit that appeared to enjoy amassing piles of papers in "neat piles".

Lloyd Webber owns six London theatres including the London Palladium and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

When asked by the Telegraph if any of his theatres are haunted, Lloyd Webber said: “I did have a house in Eaton Square which had a poltergeist."

He said he never saw the ghost, but added: "It would do things like take theatre scripts and put them in a neat pile in some obscure room.

"In the end we had to get a priest to come and bless it, and it left.”

The name 'poltergeist' comes from German words that translate loosely to 'noisy ghost'. They are supposedly responsible for physical disturbances such as making noises and moving around objects.

Lloyd Webber was knighted in 1992 and created an honorary life peer in 1997 for services to the arts.

Now 75, he has won six Tony awards, seven Olivier Awards, three Grammys and an Academy Award, along with a Golden Globe and a Brit Award, and numerous other accolades.

It is claimed a number of buildings across London claim are haunted, including the Tower of London, Highgate Cemetery, the Ragged School Museum in Tower Hamlets, and the Spaniard's Inn pub in Hampstead.

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