City of Ghosts : The Canterbury Ghost Story Festival

Location: St Gregory's Centre For Music, North Holmes Road, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 1QU

Organiser: Manoghosts Studios Ltd

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City of Ghosts: The Canterbury Ghost Story Festival is a new one-day event celebrating Canterbury’s remarkable place in the history of supernatural storytelling. Taking place at St Gregory’s, Canterbury, on Saturday 3 October, the festival marks 320 years since the publication of The Apparition of Mrs Veal in 1706. Set in Canterbury, the story provides the starting point for a day exploring the evolution of the ghost story through literature, folklore, history, art and live performance. A special feature of the festival will offer visitors the rare opportunity to see the original manuscript of M. R. James’s Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad, brought out of the archive especially for the event. The programme will also feature The Haunted Archive, a new publication exploring M. R. James through the manuscript. Dan Baines, artist, prop-maker and creator of the infamous Mummified Fairy, will explore the strange world of cursed objects, dark folklore and the supernatural, drawing on his work creating unusual artefacts and illusions for stage and screen. Robert Lloyd Parry will bring the work of M. R. James to life with two live ghost story performances, continuing a storytelling tradition that was originally intended to be experienced aloud. Throughout the day, writers, academics, artists and historians will explore Canterbury’s connections to the ghost story, from The Apparition of Mrs Veal and Dickens to M. R. James and beyond. Visitors will also encounter rare works and first editions, alongside a specially produced illustrated edition of The Apparition of Mrs Veal by acclaimed artist Brian Coldrick. Set within the atmospheric surroundings of the former church of St Gregory’s, City of Ghosts brings together ghost stories, rare archives, folklore, literary history, art and performance for one day in Canterbury. Saturday 3 October 2026 St Gregory’s, Canterbury Christ Church University