"Come for the ghosts, stay for the history": The truth is out at City Varieties Music Hall this Half Term

The City Varieties is one of the few remaining examples of a traditional Victorian music hall in the UK, having been built in 1865 above a pub, originally intended to provide entertainment for the working classes of Leeds.

Because it was built "above" existing structures, it features the tight corridors and hidden spaces that Daisy Lyons (aka Spindleshanks McScrew), owner of Yorkshire Ghost Tours, mentions, including the small, eerie areas with markings on the beams.

As part of the Explore festival, running until April 18, the tour over half term is one of many across the city designed to showcase the creative and historical heritage of Leeds through interactive and accessible events.

That includes meeting some of the (in)famous residents of City Varieties - and one that caught my attention (and admittedly my heart somewhat), ‘The White Lady’.

"We all love Barb, but she's a scary, scary lady. That's why we love her,” Daisy reveals after undertaking the first tour of the half-term holidays.

While she now reigns as a spectral icon, her living career at the music hall was famously brief due to her "unique" vocal talents.

"The White Lady was a female vocalist, and she only performed one time at the City Varieties because she was met with the worst reviews you have ever seen. She wasn't very good at what she did."

Daisy notes that the reviews from that era were particularly brutal, with one critic describing her performance as being like a "cat being strangled and thrown around in a circle".

Despite her past failure, Barb has found a new purpose in the afterlife as a guardian of the stage: "According to performers, they will have a good run of shows if they catch a glimpse of the White Lady before their run. So that's a tradition at the theatre,” Daisy explains.

But hell hath no fury than a performer slighted in the theatre world, and “our Barb” is no exception.

"One performer in particular ended up in a heap at the bottom of a staircase just moments before she was due to go on stage” Daisy details during the tour. “She's adamant that she was pushed by a jealous force... she reported having seen a gloved white hand on her shoulder."

"Barb says that that wasn't her, but of course it was Barb,” Daisy adds with a wink.

“Poor Barb is all I can say, poor lady... but at least she’s got a bit of dramatic flair about her.”

Ghostly tales to preserve local history

Having studied drama and scriptwriting, Daisy felt a pull toward creating something theatrical that allowed her to be her own boss.

"I just started doing a bit of research into my own hometown of Otley," Daisy explains. "The paranormal has always fascinated me, so when I started investigating all these amazing people that once lived there that not very many people know about, I just got hooked".

This passion for storytelling led her to the local pubs - all 24 of them in Otley - where she began collecting the "yarns" and "good tales" that form the backbone of her tours today.

By the time she expanded to Skipton and eventually Leeds, she had realised that ghost stories were the ultimate vessel for preserving local history.

It is the visitors, though, who often provide that local folklore that they have been passed down from generation to generation - and in some cases, they cannot wait until the end of the tour to share, frequently speaking up during the experience to recount their own paranormal encounters.

"Often people comment like, 'I had a few stories of my own actually,' and they will come to you after the tour and tell you," Daisy explains.

This constant influx of new information is what keeps the tours fresh and the history alive, and, for Daisy, these interactions prove that the "truth" of Leeds' heritage is as much walking the streets with the people who live there today as it is in our local museums.

And as for those sceptics that Spindleshanks McScrew has to contend with during the tours?

"All I'm saying is, I'm talking to you right now through the airwaves, and I am 833 years old, so busted," she jokes.

“But sometimes it’s the sceptics I find that have the most fun because they don’t expect to enjoy it as much as they do," noting that the rich historical "bits and bats" of the city eventually win even the most ardent over.

You can book your tickets for £8 per adult (with accompanying children going free) for the City Varieties Ghost Tour and Interactive Treasure Hunt by visiting the Leeds Heritage Theatres website or the official Explore festival page before the event concludes on April 18. For more Yorkshire Ghost Tour events, visit the official Yorkshire Ghost Tours website.