Last week the Secret Victorianist was lucky enough to be
invited to The London Dungeon Lates – a ‘grown-ups only’ tour of one of the
capital’s spookiest attractions. The organisers promised to transport guests to
a dark Dickensian underworld, where Jack the Ripper stalked the streets, as we
all indulged in a Victorian gin palace (canes, fans and monocles to hand).
The gin was certainly plentiful. In almost every room we
were encouraged to down further non-descript beverages (‘urine’ samples
included), leaving me more than happy to devour one of Mrs Lovett’s meat pies
even when dead bodies started coming down the chute from the barbers’.
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| The Secret Victorianist at London Dungeons |
The historical element was less consistent. Dressed as we
were in Ripper Street style costumes, our public house hostess soon deposited
us with a Tudor jester, who led us to Guy Fawkes’ severed (and talking) head
before we found ourselves suffering the black death and then hanging out with
Sweeney, Lovett, doomed but friendly nineteenth-century prostitutes et al. The
actors were uniformly entertaining and seemed to be enjoying the experience as
much as were.
The most convincingly ‘Victorian’ aspect of the night was
the experience of moving through a network of passages in the pitch black,
ducking to avoid ceilings and viewing anyone you passed (human or statue) with
increasing suspicion.
If you want to see the Dungeons without children this is
certainly the way to do it – slightly tipsy, tittering at the bawdy humour and having
no reason to feel too old or too embarrassed to scream.
The London Dungeon Lates will be running on June 6th
and 20th. You can book tickets (£30/40) here.
Do you have an event you would like the Secret Victorianist
to review? Let me know here, on Facebook or by tweeting
@SVictorianist.
And did you know you can indulge your love of Victorian
dress-up and visuals by following me on Pinterest?
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