7 Creepiest Places to Visit in London
By Bethany Thomas
1: The Last Tuesday Society and Viktor Wynd’s Museum of Curiosities
This museum and cocktail bar is first on the list for a reason, its creepy as hell. A concoction of the weird and wonderful all gather into the basement of a small pub; the curiosities speak for themselves. The bar upstairs is decorated with taxidermy heads of animals, one of them being the Zebra with a unicorn horn attached to it. The menu for the bar features a mixed insect platter and absinthe served with a traditional water cooler. For the small price of just £6.50 you can get admission to this museum based in Hackney. Some of the curiosities inside include a Fiji mermaid, shrunken head and Amy Winehouse’s poop in a jar, and it only gets weirder. On certain days of the week the museum is host to a petting zoo, where you can hold snakes, frogs, lizards and a giant African snail. The museum has three new exhibitions; the Field by Katrina Rose, the Museum of witchcraft and magic and the world’s longest standing erection.
2: Highgate cemetery
This eerie cemetery has an interesting history to it. In the beginning of the 19th century London was growing fast, and the government was faced with the problem of not having enough places for proper burial practices. The usual churchyards were used beforehand but were starting to become unsanitary. And so, in 1836 parliament passed an act creating the London Cemetery Company and legislated for the opening of the Magnificent Seven. Seven cemeteries were built outside the city centre over ten years. They were the most important and striking cemeteries in the capital, hence the name ‘magnificent’. Philosopher Karl Marx is buried in the east part of the cemetery.
3: The Old Operating Theatre
The Old Operating theatre is one of the oldest hospitals in the world to date. Built in 1822 as a way to demonstrate surgical and medical procedures. Many poor people would be operated on here without any aesthetic. Some were given alcohol as a way to calm their nerves before the procedure, with soundproof walls surrounding the operating theatre to muffle the screams of the patients. Other forms of pain relief came in the form of opiates and chloroform. One can only imagine what grisly sights that were once in the old operating theatre. The building was once the sight of the original St Thomas’ hospital building. Medical students would gather and watch the surgeries, majority of the time these were amputations. In one of the books in the museum it states that amputations could be done in as little as one minute. Some have reporting seeing the ghost of Florence nightingale here as this is one of the places she used to work., also known as the Woman in White. At this museum, you can take a look at the different tools and equipment’s used whilst the operating theatre was open. The small, uneven attic is loaded with glass cases displaying the herbs used to treat patients. For a small price, you could visit this historic and ghoulish site and learn about how Doctors worked in the 17th century.
4: Viaduct tavern
The historic Viaduct Tavern is a pub with a plethora of history behind it. Originally opening in 1869 by Queen Victoria, this pub has the Victorian Gin Palace style from the boom in 18th century for gin palaces. The pub gets its name after the Holborn Viaduct, which was the first central flyover in London. The Viaduct Tavern sits across from the current old bailey which is on the site of Newgate Prison, there are reports of some on-site hangings at the prison. There now stands a water fountain in the supposed place where public hangings took place until 1868, just a year before the pub opened up. The prisoners would be taken down ‘Dead Man’s Walk’, a caged walkway between newgate prison and the court, with claims that some of the prisoners were actually buried underneath the walkway. This leads many people to believe the pub is haunted by the spirits of the prisoners. The Pub stands on what used to be the debtors prison ‘Giltspur Compter’, operating from 1791 to 1853. Today the pub still has the original Gin Palace décor and the ‘toll booth’ the landlord had so that customers would exchange money for gin tokens to keep the money out of the hands of the staff. One of the paintings on the walls has a hole in it from the bayonet of a world war one soldier got into a scuffle with someone.
5: The Flask Highgate
London is home to a lot of history, and this pub has is fair share of that grisly past. It is rumoured that the Committee Room in the pub was the site of one of the first-ever autopsies. This was during the time of grave robbing, Highgate cemetery being a site for fresh bodies to work on. The named is derived from a time where they would sell flask to collect water from a nearby springs around Highgate. There are a few ghost stories to go along with this pub. The first being that of a Spanish barmaid who hung herself in the pubs cellar, which is now a seating area. There have been reports of a drop of customers feeling her blow down the back of their necks and drinks moving in front of them. The second being the story of a man in uniform who has been spotted crossing the room in the main bar and disappearing into a pillar. Dick Turpin is rumoured to have spent some time in the wine store of the pub whilst on the run from the police. The final anecdote that this pub boats is that of William Hogarth, who was a patron of the pub, who apparently sketched a fight between two patrons with tankards in the bar, however no record of the drawing has been found, but his portrait does sit in the old cellar room.
3: Execution Dock
One of the many execution sites across London, this dock is where Captain Kidd, the inspiration for Treasure Island, was hung here. Although it is not the original gallows themselves and the actual location of the dock itself has been disputed, execution dock is still a creepy sight to visit. Located in Wapping, the prisoners who were hung here were being tried for piracy. The hanging was made to be as painful as possible, the short length of the rope meant that the initial drop did not kill them, meaning they were left to suffocate for a considerable amount of time. The bodies would be left hanging from the rope for three tides washed over them. For the more notorious pirates who were hung, their bodies were tarred and strung up along the Thames to warns others of trying such crimes. Captain Kidd was amongst those who were displayed this way. The finale hangings at this dock took place on December 16th 1830, George Davis and William Watts were charged with piracy.
7: The Ten Bells Pub
This historic pub as links with the jack the ripper murders that occurred in the 17th century. Two of Jack the Ripper’s victims, Annie Chapman and Mary Kelly, are said to have links to this pub. Although it is not the original building, the new build stands just a few metres away from where it was originally. In 1755 the pub was named Eight Bells Alehouse, but in 1788 it was renamed The Ten Bells because Christ Church had a new set of bells that consisted of 10 bell chimes. There is a history of murder in the pub; one of the pubs Victorian landlords, George Roberts, was murdered with an axe and is said to haunt the upper floors where he lived when alive. It is said that staff have been terrorised by his apparition. Another gruesome murder that is said to have occurred in The Ten Bells was that of a baby that now scares mediums who come to visit. Some have even refused to enter the rooms upstairs. The pub now dons a décor that represents their Victorian heritage.
Images by Bethany Thomas