Halloween is just around the corner, and we’re getting in the spooky spirit. London is a city filled with scary stories, tales of ghosts and reminders of past horrors. All year round there’s creepy things to be found in the capital, but Halloween is without a doubt the best time to explore the darker side of our city. In this blog we’re going to take a look at some of the scariest ghosts in London and where you can visit them this month, or all year round.
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The world famous Theatre Royal on Drury Lane (a 5 minute walk from IH London) is known as the most haunted theatre in the world. There are two clowns as well as a man in grey who have been spotted throughout the theatre by actors for decades. The present building dates from 1812, but there has been a theatre on this spot since 1663…
The most famous ghost of the theatre is the man in grey, who over the past two centuries has been spotted by hundreds of people walking along the rows of seats and disappearing into the exact same spot, seemingly melting through the wall. One morning in recent years, a cleaner who was completely new to the theatre and had no knowledge of the rumoured ghost encountered the man in grey sat in the audience. She assumed he was an actor in costume, and put down her tools to talk with him, when suddenly, he vanished. She spun around trying to understand where he had gone, only to see him disappear through that famous spot in the wall.
In the Victorian times, identifying the man in grey was a mystery, however a discovery in the 1870s may provide some answers. Workmen who were renovating the theatre broke through a wall and found a hidden room, in exactly the space the ghost would always disappear into. Inside this room they found the skeleton of a man, surrounded by remains of grey cloth, with a dagger stuck in his rib cage. It is obvious a murder had taken place here many many years prior…
Hampton Court Palace:
Built in 1514, when Henry VIII was on the throne, Hampton Court Palace has been home to some of the most important members of British society for over 500 years. It is now said to be haunted by multiple ghosts.
Henry VIII’s fifth wife Catherine Howard met her demise in Hampton Court Palace. In 1542, Henry had Catherine beheaded for adultery and treason. She was arrested and told that she would be put to death in the palace, where she broke free, running and screaming through the gallery, begging the king for mercy. She never saw Henry again, as she was soon executed. But she is still heard in this gallery today, as the sounds of running footsteps and anguished screams fill the corridors.
On one day in 1999, in this same haunted corridor two women seem to have been effected by a strong force. During separate tours, at different times of the day, two female visitors fainted in the exact same spot in the haunted gallery.
The Tower of London
Possibly the most famous haunted location in London, the Tower of London was originally a palace. Building started on this fortress in 1066! Over the past 1,000 years, the Tower has become a notorious prison famous for torture and executions. Henry VIII’s wife Anne Boleyn, Guy Fawkes (famous for the Gunpowder Plot), Sir Walter Raleigh and many others spent their last days trapped in the tower.
One of the most notable hauntings in the tower is that of the two princes. Prince Edward V (age 12) and Richard of York (age 10) disappeared within the tower. After the death of King Edward IV, Prince Edward V was due to become king. However, whilst being looked after by his uncle Richard III in 1482, he and his brother vanished.
Supposedly the two boys were murdered by their uncle Richard, who wanted to kill Edward so that he could take the throne. Richard did become king, and reigned as King Richard III for 2 years in the 1400s. No one knew what had happened to the princes, and it was viewed as a tragedy by the whole nation.
Nearly 200 years later, in 1674, the bones of two small boys were found under the stairs in a small box. Most people believed them to be the bones of the two missing princes, and they were given a royal burial at Westminster Abbey. The bone were then examined in the 1930s and proved to be bones of two children aged 10 and 12. Now, throughout the tower, visitors and staff have reported regular sightings of two boys wearing pyjamas and holding hands. There have also been sightings of two boys playing in the corridors as well as the sounds of children laughing. Perhaps the brothers’ spirits were trapped in the Tower….
There are hundreds of spooky stories throughout every corner of London. If you want to come and see if you can spot one of our famous hauntings, why not visit us for one of our courses?