Durham City Centre: A History Forgotten
As I was walking through Durham City Centre this Friday, I conducted a mini psychic mediumship impression to see what I could pick up. The whole mini session was fascinating and I was able to pick up much activity.
I started at the bus station, made my way into the Durham Market then Elvet Bridge followed by Durham Cathedral.
As I made my way to the Market Hall, I picked up trials and tribulations, women being burned at the stake for witchcraft and the initial C. I felt there was court proceedings happened in this area that determined their fate, some were innocent.
What stood out to me in Elvet Bridge was a cafe called the Flat White Cafe. I visited here a few months ago with my son and the atmosphere was shockingly haunted and I sensed a lot of trauma in this place. Especially when I travelled down to the toilets below the cafe. I also smelled fire, very strong and it came out of nowhere. I sensed spirit but I did not tune in because I was with my son.
Anyway, on Friday I hoped to go back but the place had a queue outside of people waiting to go into the cafe. It would likely be impossible to catch 5-10 minutes in the toilets downstairs to channel psychic mediumship impressions. However, standing outside I managed to get some things to take away with me.
First I gathered the sense of imprisonment, men of different ethnicity, enslavement and illegal working. The whole vibe just felt very heavy and the city of Durham had an awful brown aura around most of it's buildings suggesting a lot of ghostly activity linked with trauma.
When I looked into the history of these exact locations around 30 minutes ago, the alignment was chilling (Gerrard, C, 2018).
The Historical Facts:
• The Underground Dungeons: The original Flat White Café sits right on Elvet Bridge, directly above the surviving subterranean stone vaults of the 1632 House of Correction (Bridewell), where prisoners were kept in horrific conditions.
• The County Gaol: Flat White Kitchen on Saddler Street sits on the site of the notorious Great North Gate Prison, remembered as one of the most brutal jails in English history.
• Forced Labor & Global Connections: These locations were not just prisons—they were forced-labor workshops. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Durham’s penal system held global maritime workers, sailors, and vagrants of African and Asian descent, many of whom were subjected to penal labor or processed into indentured servitude across the Atlantic.
I am definitely going to investigate more into this as a psychic medium, even sitting here now, I hear the screams, I see their mucky faces and hands, tired and worn down. One stands out with a white old fashioned loose shirt on.
If this interests you and you are keen to know more, join NE Paranormal on our guided tour psychic mediumship walk around Durham City Centre. You can book the tour here: https://www.neparanormal.co.uk/store/p/ne-paranormal-durham-city-centre-after-dark.
You can also watch my youtube video of my day out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FN4uoEyYL0
Reference
Gerrard, C. (2018) ‘Scottish Prisoners of War in Durham Cathedral: An Interview with Chris Gerrard’, EuropeNow, 7 November. Available at: https://www.europenowjournal.org/.../scottish-prisoners.../ (Accessed: 11 October 2026).
