Halloween 2023: London pubs with terrifying stories to drink at tonight
Happy Halloween! London has some incredibly creepy pubs, but this lot beat the rest. From murders to ghostly sightings of famous faces of ye olde, here are the spookiest pubs in London.
The Ten Bells Spitalfields
This pub ordinarily looks like a friendly hipster joint on the fringes of Brick Lane, but there is a darker history. In the Victorian era the pub’s landlord George Roberts was murdered by an unknown Londoner who yielded an axe. Roberts is said to make himself at home in the upstairs rooms at the pub, where staff sometimes stay. The pub was also connected to Jack the Ripper, who murdered one of his victims, Annie Chapman, after she’d spent the evening at the pub. She was murdered on Hanbury Street around the corner and her presence is often still felt at the pub.
The Spaniards Inn
A famous pitstop for Sunday walkers tackling Hampstead Heath, the Spaniard’s Inn is one of the most famous and much-loved pubs ion London. It is mentioned by Dickens in The Pickwick Papers, and is rumoured to be where the poet Keats wrote Ode to a Nightingale. But it won’t surprise fans of the pub to hear the bolthole which dates back to the 1700s has a gnarly London history. An anonymous lady in white is often seen sitting in the large beer garden, and mythical highwayman Dick Turpin, who once frequented the establishment, has been spotted wandering the street in front of the pub.
The George, Strand
The Strand is full of some incredibly historic old London pubs. The Coal Hole, once a favourite of the actor Richard Harris, is a grand and stately old watering hole. But over at The George, there is said to be a uniformed phantom wandering the basement. The landlord is used to seeing him and comforts newcomers who are creeped out by the ghost. Many people suggest waiting around on the ‘haunted’ staircase, as one ghost hunter claims this is the most haunted part.
The Bow Bells, Bow
This chilling story is one of the most famous from all the haunted pubs in London. After experiencing multiple instances of the female toilets flushing themselves while no one was visiting them, the landlord decided to hold a séance. Back in 1976, pub-goers sat and tried to communicate with the ghost, who then slammed the bathroom door so loudly that the door’s window smashed.
The Viaduct Tavern, Newgate Street
Back in 1996 the landlord of this pub was down in the cellar (where most ghostly happenings seem to take place) when the lights suddenly went off and the door slammed shut. Feeling his way over to the door, he couldn’t open it, and in complete darkness, he shouted up to his wife who came down and found the door easily opened. It wasn’t the only creepy happening in the nineties: in 1999 two electricians were in the basement when one of them felt a tap on their shoulder. His colleague denied it but it happened again. Later a carpet the men had rolled up picked itself up and was dropped on the floor. We’ll be steering clear of the Viaduct Tavern’s cellar this Halloween, then.
Read more: Things to do in London this Halloween