London’s Gothic Tourism: West End Ghosts, Southwark Horrors and an Unheimlich Home

Abstract

London has had Gothic tourism for a long time. Indeed, as the example of Madame Tussaud’s shows, some of its oldest purpose-devised tourist attractions are Gothic. In the last half century, the amount of Gothic tourism in London has increased substantially. London’s latest acquisitions include: the Clink in Bankside (which announces itself as the London prison museum); the London Dungeon; the London Bridge Experience; the Ghost Bus Tours (the Necrobus); Dennis Severs’ house in Folgate, Spitalfields; Simon Drake’s House of Magic (‘hidden away at a secret Central London location’)1; as well as numerous ghost tours and Ripper walks. In this chapter, I’m going to be taking a tour of some of London’s contemporary Gothic tourism as a means of exploring contemporary Gothic tourism more generally. I will be starting with an example that is perhaps the most akin to Walpole’s house — Dennis Severs’ House in Spitalfields — before taking myself to Drury Lane Theatre in the West End, considering its ‘Through the Stage Door’ tour. After this, I will be going south of the river — to the Clink in Bankside, and the London Dungeon. Finally, I will be touring the city (or rather cities — Westminster and the City) on the Necrobus. En route, I will be discussing some of the dominant tropes and modes of the attractions.