Most haunted locations earn their reputation over centuries — crumbling castles, derelict asylums, old coaching inns with long memories. Priscilla Bacon Lodge is different. It’s a working NHS hospice, opened in its current form in 2023, and it became the subject of national headlines not because of its history, but because of something staff say they saw in the corridors of the old building on Unthank Road.

The story of the lodge goes back to 1979, when Priscilla, Lady Bacon led a public fundraising appeal to create a dedicated palliative care unit for Norfolk. The original building on Unthank Road was donated to the NHS on completion and served the county for more than four decades. By 2016, the charity had formed again — this time to fund an entirely new facility. A £12.5 million appeal launched in 2019, construction began in February 2022, and the new lodge at Century Place, Colney, welcomed its first patients on 15 September 2023. King Charles III officially opened the building the following month.

The new facility is built near the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on an eight-acre site. It has 24 inpatient beds, day care facilities, a wellness centre, a gym, and a community hub. The old Unthank Road building remained under NHS ownership, earmarked for alternative medical use. It’s that older building — and what may still linger there — that interests us.

There’s a layer of history beneath the hospice story that’s easy to overlook. Before the Unthank Road site became a palliative care unit, it was home to the Jenny Lind Children’s Hospital, which operated there until 1975. A hospital for children, followed by a hospice for the dying, on the same patch of ground. Whether that matters to the paranormal reports or not is something reasonable people can disagree about — but it’s worth knowing.

The paranormal claims that surfaced publicly centred on sightings of a small girl in a red dress at the old Unthank Road building. Reports described staff members being distressed enough that the Diocese of Norwich became involved. Coverage in The Telegraph and The Independent referred to requests for a blessing and the involvement of a deliverance team, though the Diocese later clarified that no formal exorcism had been carried out.

What the reports don’t tell us — and what’s honest to acknowledge — is that end-of-life care environments are intense, emotionally charged places. Researchers into paranormal claims have long noted that grief, stress, and sleep deprivation can all influence perception. That doesn’t mean nothing happened. It means we should hold the accounts carefully, rather than either dismissing them outright or treating them as settled fact.

The girl in the red dress has no confirmed identity. The connection to the Jenny Lind Children’s Hospital is a natural one to make, but it remains speculation. What’s less speculative is that this story — a modern, functioning NHS building, a haunting that prompted a church response, and a figure seen by multiple members of staff — is genuinely unusual. Most apparition reports come from derelict or abandoned spaces. This one didn’t.