Several people reported seeing the 'freaky face' of the bard looking down on them through a window of the cafe
Several people reported seeing the 'freaky face' of the bard leering down on them through a window of the cafe as they walked past on the street below.
But the phantom was actually nothing more than a haunting illusion after the cafe's boss prepared to mark the anniversary with a cardboard cut-out and stashed it upstairs.
Rich Sutton, who owns Poco Coffee shop in Prescot, Merseyside, forgot to tell staff about the new addition and they were baffled when people began coming in saying they had seen the ghost.
Regular customer Jess Smith, 22, had been passing by the night before when she saw the figure in the darkness and even came back past the cafe a second time to check she was not seeing things.
Jess, a ride operator from Prescot, said: "It was getting quite dark when I went past and I saw a face looking down that made me do a double take.
"I recognised it but I didn't know where from as behind the window and in the poor light it was hard to see.
"It was on my mind what I had seen so I actually went back past to try to work out who or what it was I had seen. I wondered if it was a ghost or someone lurking up there, I had no clue what it was, I had a lot of thoughts going round in my head.
Read more: 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death: We look at how the Bard influenced our language
"It was then I realised it looked like Shakespeare. I wondered if I was seeing things or if it was actually there.
"I must have looked like a right idiot. I was quite scared as it was quite dark and you couldn't make out exactly what it was, it just looked like a figure and the odd thing was it was stood right in the middle of the room.
"I went home and told my dad as he was going out in that direction. I said 'Oh my god, I don't know what I have just seen' and told him to go past and check I was not going crazy.
"There is a lot about Shakespeare in the news at the moment with his birthday and also the plans for the Shakespeare North theatre nearby so it was quite weird. I didn't know what to think.
"William Shakespeare is the last face you expect to see staring out of the window of the local coffee shop at night though."
Rich, 49, said: "I put it up there just to keep it out of the way and hoped to bring it into the shop to add some character to it since the building has an old Tudor-style front.
"I stuck it up there and didn't think much more about it however then people started coming into the store the next morning and asking who was upstairs. A few asked if we had a ghost as they had seen this figure staring down from them from the dark upstairs room.
"I hadn't even thought to tell the staff about it so that kept the mystery going as they couldn't explain it and were telling people that there was no one upstairs.
"Thankfully I heard about what was going on and was able to clear it up before anyone got too freaked out."
Saturday marks the 400th anniversary of the bard's death and reputedly his 452nd birthday, since legend has it they were the same date.
