Pic: Nigel Lawson
Are you brave enough to look for ghosts on Halloween? Do you dare to creep around London’s dark alleys in search of underground parties? Can you stomach eyeball martinis and edible hair?
EastLondonLines has put together a range of traditional and not so traditional things for grown up ghouls to do this Halloween. So whether it’s partying in Shoreditch or heading out on the ghost trail in Croydon we’ve got it covered.
If you believe in the afterlife or enjoy scaring your friends you could spend Halloween searching for ghosts in the EastLondonLines boroughs. To find out the sites of historic deaths and ghost stories read EastLondonLines’ own ghost maps and reports for Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, the ‘most haunted’ Croydon and Hackney.
Taking to the streets to search for the supernatural may not seem appropriate unless you are dressed for the occasion. Costumes for ghost hunting, trick or treating or partying can be found in New Cross’ own Prangsta. Tweet your Halloween costumes @eastlondonlines this week.
If trick-or-treat is not for you, then perhaps 80’s scary films, in a chapel, surrounded by monsters, vampires and zombies is. Hackney’s Round Chapel will be showing Ghostbusters (1984) at 5pm and The Lost Boys (1987) at 8.30pm and invites viewers to dress up for the occasion. A licensed bar will be serving drinks and tickets for the earlier screening cost £8.50 for children and £10.00 for adults, and £12.50 for adults for the later screening.
If you’d prefer to spend the evening cackling with friends over a ‘Witches’ Brew’ or sipping a ‘Bloody Tooth Cocktail’ that might actually make your teeth bleed, then a list of peculiar drink recipes can be found here. (
A child is not a necessity if you want to make and eat sweet foods in the shape of body parts or animals. The BBC has put together a collection of Halloween recipes ranging from pumpkin soup to home-made toffee apples with chopped nuts stuck to them, as well the usual ideas for Halloween baking
It is also possible to scare yourself in the comfort of your own home. Here’s a list of horror films to watch tonight.
Pumpkin carving appears to get more elaborate each year, which makes the classic triangle eyes, nose and mouth technique look a bit dated, it also means a growing selection of creatively carved vegetables are online for you to copy. In the name of journalism and Halloween spirit, I decided to give it a go. My design of choice? A vomiting pumpkin. I scooped out the stringy inners and seeds and then positioned them in front of the pumpkin’s ‘mouth’ to look like a steady flow of sick. Needless to say, it looked great. Tweet @eastlondonlines with your pumpkin pictures and we will post the best ones at the end of the week.
After you’ve carved your pumpkin you might be in the mood for something a little more adventurous. The Book Club in Shoreditch is hosting ‘Bones and McGibbor’s Funeral Parlor’, a night of DJs and disturbing themes. The club, which is on 100 Leonard Street, invites you to ‘get slaughtered, then mourned and laid to rest’ and is offering a menu of edible hair and blood curdling cocktails throughout the evening. DJs Patrick CA (Deadly Rhythm) and Bastille Edits (Superbreak) will be playing at the event, which will run from 8pm-2am on Halloween. Online tickets have sold out and tickets are £5 on the door.
