London's Scariest Places
New pants please
Booo!
That's just a free-sample of what's to come...
London is scary. Fact. And we're not just talking house prices.
Nope, London has some of the grisliest history of any city you can imagine - but really that's just because it has so much history, and history can be, by-and-large, pretty grisly. Look at Milton Keynes by comparison: decidedly less scary. (Unless you're frightened of roundabouts.)
From catacombs to crypts, cemeteries to torture rooms we walk you through London's scariest places...
The London Dungeon
County Hall, Westminster Bridge Road SE1 7PB
Visitor Attractions
Photos
Once it was considered naff by all but the very young, but after arefurb and a move to County Hall the fear factor has been cranked up several notches. Experiences are immersive and sensory, so you’ll be able to smell, hear and feel terrifying characters like The Plague Doctor, Sweeney Todd and “The Torturer”.
Laid out a bit like a theatre auditorium, elevated seats surround a rough wooden bed where the surgical procedures once took place. One can only imagine the horror of performing and undergoing surgery without anaesthetic in the 19th century. Oddly enough, the room can only be accessed via a narrow staircase leading from St. Thomas’ Church, which is why it lay hidden for nearly a hundred years and till it was discovered in 1956.
This medicine-based museum offers a tour of gruesome from around the world. Here you’ll find a Chinese torture chair fitted with steel blades that is excruciating to look at; even worse are the shrunken heads, boiled down to their diminutive size by the Amazonian Shuar, who believed the practice prevented vengeful souls from escaping.
All cemeteries are creepy, but there’s something especially sinister about one with open graves. The Tower Hamlets Cemetery in Bow opened in 1841, at a time when the East End was home to the worst slums in the capital. With many not being able to afford a plot to be buried in, around 80% of all burials were interred in public graves, usually on top of people they bore no relation to. Naturally ghost stories abound, and the graveyard’s dense foliage lends itself perfectly to tales of the unknown.
In the basement of St Pancras Church you’ll find an exhibition space like no other: an underground burial site where over 500 people are interred. The cavernous space is made up of a series of brick tunnels, and dramatic spot lighting adds to the tension.
The capital has subterranean tunnels aplenty, some more exciting than others, such as the <b>London Bridge Catacombs</b>. The underground network beneath Tooley Street is of particular interest to us because just a few years ago a load of human bones were uncovered, leading many to think this was the site of a plague pit. But that’s not all: some of the skulls found have holes in them, which suggests they were impaled. A section of these tunnels now forms part of the London Bridge Experience, a guided tour through the catacombs complete with CGI special effects.
