Free Ghost Story Telling Nights

To celebrate Charles Dickens’ 200th Anniversary, Illumini will take you back to a Victorian London and take you on a journey of Victorian hauntings, explore the dark side of a city long forgotten, take torch light tours beneath the haunted streets of the city.

During the main exhibition there will be free talks, performances and evenings of ghost stories by a number of special guests: authors, historians, paranormal experts, performers and museum specialists.

Saturday 29th Sept

6pm- 'The strange sites and stranger sights of haunted London'
Richard Holland, former editor of Paranormal Magazine and current editor of popular website Uncanny UK, highlights some of the most interesting and less well-known haunted locations he found while developing his SmartPhone app Ghost Finder London.

7pm- 'Dr Knox and the Widow Baker'
A Gruesome Twosome, complete with their handcart of body parts tell the grisly tale of Victorian Bodysnatchers. An interactive horror story lasting about 20 minutes suitable for all ages

8pm- From beyond the Grave - ghostly messages from the dead
Rosie Murdie from The Ghost Club
Throughout Dickens life he had a fascination with ghosts and was one of the first members of the Ghost Club, which is formed in 1862 study the paranormal. The Victorian era also saw the rise of the spiritualist movement with mediums purporting to receive messages from the dead. But can the dead really communicate with us and is there any evidence that these messages are genuine? In this talk I will examine some of the stories and theories on the subject illustrated with drawings and photos of ghosts.

9pm- 'Brunel's First and Last Projects: Haunted Tunnel, Haunted Ship '
Talk and then tour by Robert Hulse, Director of The Brunel Museum, tells the story of two remarkable hauntings and afterwards leads the party by London Overground to see the ghostly arches of the underwater fair before a careful descent into the secret underground chamber where the six men drowned.

Thursday 4th Oct

6pm- Magic Lantern show- Victorian humour on Victorian moving slides.
Victorian humour was slap-stick, politically incorrect (nowadays!) and maybe not now humourous at all! Come and judge for yourselves at a show of genuine Victorian moving slides projected on a Victorian magic lantern!

7pm- A Victorian Ghost Story
Charlotte Coates invites you a lo-tech reading of a genuinely spine chilling story, an unpleasant tale that will leave you feeling unnerved and discombobulated. Charlotte will prove that you don't need CGI or 3d or anything fancy to get a fright – your imagination and dark room are all that's required.

8pm- 'Is this the face of Jack the Ripper'
Was he a local man or a visitor to the area? How did he manage to evade capture when surely he must have been noticeably bloodstained as many homeless were wandering the streets at night? What would happen if this crime occurred today, would he still evade capture? Why is he called Jack not Edward Thomas or Harold the Ripper? Would you like to know the answer to these and other questions you may have on this gruesome fascinating character? If so join this talk by Ripper expert Jenny Phillips

9pm-'Ghosts of Britain and Ireland'
A journey through the spectral places of Britain and Ireland. Ghost hunter and author Richard Jones takes you to some of the most haunted places of this spectred realm and tells the stories of the ghosts that have been seen there. chilling, fascinating and amusing in equal measure this talk will open your eyes to the darker side of Britain.

To book please visit our website