Bond icon Daniel Craig buys 18th-century pub in London with three friends and says it's 'haunted by Spectre'

Daniel Craig has become the co-owner of The Horseshoe in Clerkenwell, a 250-year-old haunted pub.

The Bond actor, 58, has bought the London boozer with a group of pals –  Soho House owner Nick Jones, Charlie Carroll, the Flat Iron steakhouse founder and Justin O’Shea, the creative director of the star's lager brand Bad Belze.

But there is another important member of the pub team – a hangman’s ghost who has haunted the cellar of the bar for decades.

Retiring landlady Pauline Tucker has admitted that the spooky punter wasn't mentioned to Daniel and his co-owners at the time of the sale but they have now been filled in on his antics. 

The pub ghost was once the local hangman and still sometimes lurks down in the cellar, with the landlady admitting: 'You don’t see him. You feel him.'

Daniel insists he isn't worried though, joking to The Times: 'I don’t know what he drinks but we might have to leave a pint down there: "Here you are Gilbert".'

The big screen star is following his parents and grandparents, who both ran pubs in Cheshire, into the trade. 

Daniel said he spent his childhood in the family pubs, recalling: 'There were lock-ins and things, especially on New Year’s Eve. People used to party quite hard.'

'I grew up in pubs. You know the ups and downs of a pub. I know the good and the bad of it.'

'As a kid I’d get to go down and talk to the locals, especially at lunchtime, and it was always about the day, what’s going on. It’s an outlet for people to come and talk about stuff, maybe their problems.'

The star has plans to refurbish the pub but cautions he won't be turning The Horseshoe into a modern gastropub. 

When he's not behind the bar, Daniel has a number of projects on the horizon since giving up his Bond role.

The actor is set to star in Greta Gerwig's upcoming film adaptation of C S Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, playing magician Uncle Andrew Ketterley.

Meanwhile speculation as to who will take over from the actor as 007 rumbles on.

Five years on from Daniel's final scenes as the legendary character, the role is still yet to be cast, despite rumours swirling that Callum Turner, Jack Lowden, Harris Dickinson, Jack Barton and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are among those on the audition list. 

Amazon MGM Studios struck a deal with longtime franchise stewards Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson to take full control of Ian Fleming's iconic spy franchise last year.

The studio is said to be casting the next instalment at the moment, with an announcement expected this autumn. Filming could then start at the turn of the year.