The Necrobus: London Ghost Tour
There are a few things that I have always wanted to do in London and, despite living here, never seem to get around to doing them. Luckily for me I recently had the chance to experience one of those activities on my London list: The Necrobus: London Ghost Tour.
Now everyone knows that most big cities, including London, have tour buses which drive around pointing out all the interesting sites and sounds of the city – but the Necrobus is a little different! The Necrobus tour is a sightseeing tour on a traditional, classic 1960s Routemaster bus, taking you around the darker side of England’s capital.
The black bus is decked out with blood red upholstery, curtains and some rather stylish dangly lamps casting a low and spooky light on your and your fellow passengers. We had plenty of time to admire our surroundings when we took our seats on the upper deck of the bus in one of the booths as we joined the tour on Northumberland Avenue just off of Trafalgar square.
This is not just a plain old drive around the city, oh no, there are actors joining you on your tour and a smorgasbord of spooky trickery which combine to create a ‘frightseeing’ tour like no other – a comedy horror show while you see the sights – experienced through first hand encounters with the actors as well as via the television screens set up around the bus letting you see the activities from both levels of the bus and also a ‘foot cam’ which allowed us to see our feet and the occasional friendly rat walk underneath our seats!
Our journey began with the introduction of the Conductor, a friendly if not somewhat disturbed character whose duty it was to tell us grisly stories as we drove around the city. We learned of the many venues of death and paranormal activities on the tour including the haul of bones found under the London Dungeon site at London Bridge, the location in Smithfields where ‘Bloody’ Queen Mary was executed, a little known graveyard in Southwark where constructors of the Jubilee Tube line discovered a mass of skeletons and not forgetting the rooms of the well known author Bram Stoker, writer of the Dracula story.
The Conductor not only gave us the run down of all things spooky, he also appeared as if from no-where, screamed loudly and generally acted in strange ways. Of course he was out-done by the creepy woman who stepped onto the bus and proceeded to perform all manner of crazy walking round the bus, scraping the roof with her fingers and having been introduced as the ‘health and safety’ inspector proceeded to show us ‘blood’ she had found under the seats and photographs of ghostly dead old ladies she supposedly saw on the bus staircase! She also decided to jump on and off the bus at random places along the route.
The tour certainly entertained and educated us as she moved around the city from the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey over to St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tower of London with the staff offering a highly theatrical experience we will probably never forget – especially the seance we held in the bus to get rid of an unfriendly spirit which included flickering lights, booming scary voices and the general insanity of the actors!
I am certainly very happy that I decided to bite the bullet and take a trip on the Necrobus, I recommend the experience to everyone in London who wants to see a different side of the city! Book your visit via the ghost bus tours website.
