Prepare for a spook-fest like no other as London puts on a thrilling show; from death-defying drinks to terrifying treats, these are the Halloween events to scare yourself silly at this year
Words Helen Brown
London’s scariest Halloween events to fright and delight
TOWER BRIDGE AT NIGHT
Don your Bridge Master’s cap and whistle for a chance to explore Tower Bridge Exhibition for one of the city’s most special after hours Halloween events. Hosted in the historic Victorian Engine Rooms located deep at the heart of the Bridge, London’s most iconic attraction will open its doors to host its first ever Museum Mystery event. As part of the UK-wide Museums at Night initiative, Raising Suspicions: A Fiendish Mystery Inside Tower Bridge Engine Rooms will follow the disappearance of Leslie the Bridge Master. With just over an hour to solve the puzzle, you will be enlisted to help track down the villain responsible to find out what really happened to the missing Bridge Master.
Tickets available here.
ESCAPE TO UNCLE BART’S SPOOKEASY
Those who dare are invited to find their way to the hidden black door inside the corridors of Chelsea Cloisters and enter into Uncle Bart’s’ Spookeasy this Halloween. Be sure to dress to impress to stay hidden from all things that go bump in the night. Those looking for a little Dutch courage can sip the evening away on lawless Veuve Clicquot and Belvedere liquor, guaranteed to keep the spookiest of scaries at bay.
28 October, barts-london.com
DEATH DEFYING DRINKS AT DANDELYAN
Recently awarded World’s Best Cocktail Bar, Dandelyan have teamed up with Mexico’s Licoreria Limantour to create a multi-sensory menu that plays on ideas preservation, zombification, and cheating death. The menu marks the start of Dandelyan’s ‘World Botany Series’ and will make use of Mexican flavours such as dried herbs, chilli and wood. Inspired by the preservation at play in drinks, the cocktails will extend the life of botanicals beyond nature’s intentions.
Available from 27-31 October, morganshotelgroup.com
A VISIT FROM DR JEKYLL & MR HYDE
Calling all angels and devils, those who are naughty or nice. This scary season, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde will be at Mr Fogg’s residence in Mayfair for one of London’s most chaotic and exciting Halloween events. Enjoy libations of Belvedere Vodka and Veuve Clicquot upon arrival and a creative cocktail menu of concoctions guaranteed to match each and every person and personality.
HALLOWEEN AFTERNOON TEA AT ROYAL LANCASTER LONDON
Frights, Camera, Action. This Halloween, Royal Lancaster London is directing something spooky. The iconic hotel is going back to the 1960s for Halloween to celebrate its 50th Birthday. Indulge in a truly thrilling experience with the Halloween Afternoon Tea, inspired by 1960s classic horror movies. A very cold welcome awaits you, with Alfred Hitchcock classics flickering from a projector and The Little Shop of Horrors’ Audrey sitting on your table. Pull the curtains back on a scene of savoury classics, before sinking your fangs into an array of sickly-sweet confections.
Available from 17-31 October, royallancaster.com
DISCOUNT SUIT COMPANY X JACK THE RIPPER HALLOWEEN TOUR
Spitalfields cocktail bar, Discount Suit Company invite you to join them on a fright night to remember as they join forces with the award-winning Jack The Ripper Tour. The intimate drinking den is nestled in the middle of Jack The Ripper’s infamous East End hunting ground and makes for a thrilling place to spend the night. The walks will commence at Discount Suit Company where you will receive a hot toddy upon arrival, followed by a tour of the backstreets of Whitechapel and Spitalfields where you will learn about Jack’s grisly exploits. The tour will then conclude with a frightfully fantastic party at Discount Suit Company, where guests can steady their nerves and digest the gruesome details with specially themed cocktails.
Tickets are £20 including two cocktails as well as the walking tour and are available here.
THE HALLOWEEN VARIETY SHOW
This Halloween, celebrate with The Don and his mobsters as they rule the roof at Bunga Bunga Covent Garden. Enter the hidden bat cave, filled with hanging surprises, before making your way downstairs for a complimentary Black Bacardi Daiquiri and an evening filled with Bunga Bunga’s unrivalled immersive entertainment. Guests will encounter many of The Don’s mobsters from the present day and those who have passed, as they make their way through the fully immersive and theatrical evening. You’ll leave wondering what was real and what was not.
27-28 October, covent-garden.bungabunga-london.com
A VISIT FROM DR. FRANKENSTEIN
This Halloween you invited to Phileas J Fogg’s in Covent Garden as he welcomes a scientific genius into his Tavern & Gin Parlour for one evening only. Expect to trial and taste an array of bubbling concoctions, motions and smoking potions, while experimenting with bubbles from Veuve Clicquot and Belvedere cocktail flavours, all in the name of science.
28 October, mr-foggs.com
CUTTER & SQUIDGE SPOOKTACULAR HALLOWEEN RANGE
If you’re planning to give the Halloween events a miss, get into the spirit of with Cutter & Squidge’s all-natural, hand-made desserts. Available in-store and online, their range of spooky specials includes a fantastic five-layer chocolate web cake, Halloween Biskies and a Trick or Treat Biskie Box.
DAY OF THE DEAD AT JUNKYARD GOLF
Junkyard Golf Club will throw open its gates to a thrilling Day of the Dead celebration and immerse revellers in a Halloween experience like never before. Putters will come face to face with a series of spine-tingling performances as they make their way around Junkyard’s crazy golf wasteland which will undergo a macabre Mexican makeover for one night only. Performers on the line up include jugglers, unicyclists, LED hoopers and The Magic Ball Man, who caused a storm last year with a hypnotic video that racked up over 22 million views on Facebook.
BALTHOWEEN
Balthoween, Balthazar’s four day Halloween extravaganza, will see the restaurant transformed with petrifying pumpkins and vampire bats, as well as a menu filled with tributes to the season including a dessert presented as a graveyard filled with ghosts, bats and headstones. New Balthoween cocktails include The Spawn Is Watching, a slimy blend of Bacardi Blanco, carrot juice, Velvet Falernum liquor, ginger and passion fruit or The Apparition a ghostly mix of Bacardi Blanco, coconut cream, lime and bitter lemon. Visitors who dare to enter on 31st October will receive a bag of chocolate treats with a purchase for children in costume, and customers ordering a Balthoween cocktail could receive it on the house by getting ‘treat’ on the flipped coin.
HALLOWEEN AT THE IVY MARKET GRILL
Serving up a Halloween special, The Ivy Market Grill is inviting Halloween into its Covent Garden space with a menu that features Blood and Smoke cocktails and a Halloween bomb pudding – a take on their classic chocolate bomb. Deliciously spooky.
