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The Most Haunted House in London... or not?
The haunted upper floor of the headquarters for Maggs Bros Rare bookseller have been out-of-bounds since the 1950s, and one room in the attic is said to be so haunted that it has driven at least two...
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English Horror Story: Asylum
Patients in a Victorian Asylum (from the BBC).Part of Dracula is set in an insane asylum because they were definitely scary! Bram Stoker used to visit them with the actress, Ellen Terry. She was...
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1890s Witches
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle protested the harassment of mediums by comparing it to the antiquated persecution of witches. In 1897, Sigmund Freud said he understood "the stern therapy of the witches’...
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A London Ghost
The following story appeared on the front page of the Evening Post, 21 April 1894.Throughout October 2014, I will be sharing the halloween-themed stories of 1890s London. Check back often!Follow me on...
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The Chamber of Horrors (Waxworks)
Melted and damaged mannequins after fire in Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in London, 1925Marie Tussaud's great-grandson, Louis Tussaud opened his own wax museum at 207 Regent Street, London, on Christmas...
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Dens of Debauchery
Without kids to take trick-or-treating, we've been talking about going out for Halloween, but no one wants to spend too much money, which got me thinking of what writers in London in the 1890s feared...
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Scary Toys
Complete Game of Authors - McLoughlin Brothers, NY (1887)Toys form the subject of many horror movies. These 1890s examples give us some indication of why.McLoughlin Brothers, NY (1890).Cat Holes is a...
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Photos of Victorian Dead People
WARNING: This post contains images of dead Victorian babies. This is a terribly sad collection of photos."I see dead people." - The Sixth Sense (1999).No sixth sense is necessary for the horrifying...
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Jack the Ripper in Popular Culture
Jack the Ripper is the most legendary terror of late-Victorian London. I've written about him before, and it's the legacy that the ripper case left upon the imagination that fascinates me the most.If...
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Halloween is for Lovers
The old guidwife's well-hoarded nuts,Are round and round divided,And many lads' and lasses' fatesAre there that night decided:Some kindle cosily, side by side,And burn together trimly;Some start away,...
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A Woman Called Horniman
Annie HornimanWilliam Butler Yeats was in his mid-twenties, living in London, had joined the Isis-Urania Temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, when he met a rich older lady, who fell in love...
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Physiognomy and Vampires
Now regarded as pseudoscience, physiognomy, the art of detecting one's character through the shape of their face, was widely accepted among many writers in London in the 1890s, including Bram Stoker...
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Who was Dracula?
Who was Dracula? Ever since the novel was published in 1897, scholars and fans have been trying to answer this question. In honour of Bram Stoker's birthday, I'm sharing a few of the ideas I've heard...
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Bram Stoker & Oscar Wilde Kiss & Tell
After many years of lipstick kisses, Oscar Wilde moved to a new tomb in 2011How did Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde feel about kissing in their writing? I've talked about dancing, and women, and other...
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Images of London in 1899
On the last day of the 19th century, a large stone at Stonehenge fell over. The collapse changed people's attitudes toward Stonehenge, as people started thinking of it as a national treasure.Repairing...
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1890s Male Body Image
Belgian painter Henri Evenepoel's 1898 selfie.Everyone knows that Victorian women were supposed to be chaste. Many people still consider female chastity a virtue, so in some ways little has changed....
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1890s Literary Hostesses
The literary hostess is a figure, who pops up repeatedly in the biographies of all my 1890s writers. Married, or unmarried, she was usually, but not always a woman of means, who loved literature, and...
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20 Things You Should Know About Bram Stoker's Wife
Florence Stoker (2 November 1880)Who was Bram Stoker's wife? Why should we care about her? Stoker wrote Dracula, surely that makes him the interesting one. Nope.Mrs. Stoker's friends called her...
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The Sexual Orientation of Men in the 1890s
Everyone knows that Victorian women were supposed to be chaste. Many people still consider female chastity a virtue, so in some ways little has changed. For me, it is impossible to look at any notion...
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The Charlatans of the 1890s Anti-Masturbation Movement
Everyone knows that Victorian women were supposed to be chaste. Many people still consider female chastity a virtue, so in some ways little has changed. For me, it is impossible to look at any notion...
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