IT does not take long to forget how places looked and Southampton’s old Eye Hospital, at the junction of Bedford Place and Wilton Avenue, is a perfect example.

The hospital, which closed in April 1994, always had a reputation for the skills of the medical staff and also for its friendly atmosphere, and was a well-known landmark in the city for decades.

The 165-year-old building, originally known as Wilton House, was said to be haunted by the ghost of a former house-keeper named Effy, who murdered a young maid in the early 1800s.

Staff at the hospital told of how they saw, from time to time, a ghostly spirit dressed in grey and with an eyeglass worn on a ribbon around her neck, in the wards and corridors of the building.