Death lines, p.10
Death Lines, page 10
These two films demonstrate a pattern in horror where the Underground might be perceived as both a place of sanctuary and threat, where our pursuit of safety might lead us directly into unexpected confrontations with the very terrors we wish to avoid.
✦ Continue straight along the Strand for 148 feet, then turn right onto the pedestrianised Villiers Street. Continue along Villiers Street for 175 yards until you come to Victoria Embankment Gardens on your left. Enter the gardens through the first gate and continue straight along the brick path until you reach a large, open area. Cross over the area towards the large potted palm tree beyond. Continue straight, following the path roughly parallel to the Thames for 175 yards until you reach the statue of Robert Raikes. Turn right at the statue and follow the path to Victoria Embankment Road. At the pedestrian crossing, cross over the road to the riverside walkway, and turn right, heading for the large Egyptian statues. The obelisk in the middle is Cleopatra's Needle.
Cleopatra's Needle is reproduced digitally for a pivotal scene in the Hughes Brothers’ Jack the Ripper horror film From Hell (2001). In the scene, a prostitute named Polly Nichols stares up at the needle in awe while eating grapes in the back of a carriage. A man in the shadows behind her tells her that many men died bringing the obelisk to London, before he strangles her from behind, ensuring her dying vision is the Needle. The man is Jack the Ripper, and the grapes he offered her will become an essential clue in his capture.
Cleopatra's Needle is significant in From Hell because of its Masonic ties. If you have visited the St Paul's Cathedral hotspot, you will know that the Ripper is killing prostitutes as part of a quasi-Masonic ritual. When the Ripper takes Polly to the Needle, he imparts its mystical history, highlighting the death and tragedy that appear to charge its ominous form with a portentous dread. As with the mythical pre-history of St Paul's Cathedral – which was allegedly constructed atop a pagan temple – there is some historical truth to the Ripper's superstitions. Though gifted to Britain decades before, Cleopatra's Needle did not begin its journey to London until 1877, thanks to the financial support of Sir William James Erasmus Wilson. Wilson was a Freemason and fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, as is the Ripper in From Hell. According to the cosmology of the movie (and the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell upon which it is based), the obelisk is said to be inscribed with symbols resonant for Masonry, and to have been placed along an important ley line bisecting London, making it a protective talisman of sorts for the city. Some people believe that when the shipping crews died transporting the Needle to London, their sacrifice cemented the sacred power of the obelisk; a power that could be said to manifest through the demonic actions of the Ripper.
✦ Retrace your steps along the Embankment and continue to Waterloo Bridge.
Across the road on this side of the river is the great Georgian era Somerset House, whose clocktower is visible in the opening narration of the 2010 horror-comedy Burke and Hare, directed by John Landis of American Werewolf and the Thriller music video fame. The rest of the film takes place in Edinburgh, following the two famous graverobbers in their attempt to kill people and sell their bodies to doctors at the local medical university. The opening scene alludes vaguely to bodies hanging at the gallows, and the Neoclassical architecture and open courtyard of Somerset House make for a visually dramatic setting for an execution, instilling the scene with a sense of institutional history and judicial gravity. Somerset House also makes a brief appearance as a New York street in Tim Burton's horror comedy Sleepy Hollow (1999). Filmmakers recreated Victorian New York for the film by using locations throughout the United Kingdom, including Oxford and London. In the final scene of the film, Ichabod Crane returns to New York City, and as he and his paramour Katrina walk down the street, the building behind them can clearly be identified as Somerset House.
Turning back toward the Thames, a dead body is found on this very stretch of the Embankment in Alfred Hitchcock's 1927 silent film The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog. Only the latest in a series of grisly murders, the body sparks a press whirlwind that ultimately leads to an innocent man being hounded (almost to death) by panicked citizens. Originally, Hitchcock intended to include a shot of a body being pulled from the river, but it was cut from the film due to a combination of censorship and uneven lighting. The scene, if it had stayed in the film, would no doubt have been deeply shocking for the time. Over forty years later, Hitchcock would return to this area to film a different body floating up onto the Embankment in Frenzy (1972).
✦ Retrace your steps along the Embankment towards Cleopatra's Needle. Take the first right onto Savoy Street, following it up to the Strand. Turn left onto the Strand and walk a further 120 yards. The entrance to the Savoy Hotel is on your left.
The five-star Savoy Hotel has been synonymous with luxury since it opened in 1889, but it became internationally famous during World War II when it served as a meeting place for world leaders like Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle. This reputation made it popular with Americans and may indeed be why Dr John Holden stays at the Savoy in Jacques Tourneur's supernatural horror Night of the Demon (1957).
After visiting the country mansion of mystical cult leader Julian Karswell, the sceptical Holden learns that he has been cursed to die, before returning to his hotel room. As he walks through the hotel, Holden hears an eerie tune in a hallway, but cannot find its source. As he scrutinises the emptiness, the door behind him opens, making him jump. Thankfully, it's only his other colleagues, whom he invites to his room for a drink. He whistles the unusual tune for them, and one historian recognises it as an ancient Irish song about the devil. As Holden processes this, the same man notices that all the days after the 28th – Holden's predicted date of death – have been inexplicably ripped from his calendar.
The link between the supernatural and the Savoy Hotel goes beyond cinema. Notice the feline topiary beside the entrance to the Savoy: these unique cats are modelled after the Savoy's cat, Kaspar. Kaspar is not a pet, but rather a sinuously carved statue who joins tables of thirteen at the hotel to ward off bad luck. The superstition started in 1898 when a wealthy man named Woolf Joel hosted a party at the Savoy at which only thirteen people attended. The superstition of thirteen naturally came up during dinner, with someone mentioning the belief that when a table of thirteen convened, it meant bad luck for the first person to depart. To ease his guest's mind, Joel was the first to leave the table and was shot weeks later, confirming the suspicions of his guests. The Savoy quickly took action to keep its patrons safe and included a member of staff at any table of thirteen until 1927 when architect Basil Ionides carved Kaspar to act as the ceremonial fourteenth place at the table.
✦ Continue along the Strand and take the next zebra crossing to your right across the road (about 100 feet away). This will take you to Southampton Street. Continue straight along Southampton Street for 160 yards until it curves. Follow the curve around The Ivy restaurant onto Henrietta Street. Number 3 Henrietta Street is on your left just past the restaurant.
Returning to Hitchcock's Frenzy, this is the home of Bob Rusk, a fruit and vegetable merchant in the nearby Covent Garden Market. Rusk's close friend, Richard Blaney, is wrongly accused of a series of murders performed by the ‘necktie murderer’, and when Rusk overhears Blaney's girlfriend, Babs, argue with her landlord over Blaney, Rusk offers his apartment to her as a place to stay. He leads Babs up to his apartment on the second floor, and lets her in, commenting that Babs is ‘his type of woman’. The door closes, and in silence, the camera moves backwards down the staircase and out the door where the noise of the street drowns out Babs’ screams; Rusk, the real necktie murderer, has taken another victim. This scene is a classic example of Hitchcock's direction. The burgeoning silence as the camera retreats builds tension for the audience who know that Babs is trapped, and yet our knowledge remains futile as we're drawn helplessly back through the casually ignorant people in the market below.
Later in the film, when Blaney turns to Rusk for help, Rusk again offers Blaney his apartment as a hideout. Rusk insists that they leave for his home separately to be less conspicuous. Taking Blaney's bag with him, Rusk arrives at his flat first and fills the bag with Babs’ clothing before calling the police. Once Blaney arrives Rusk is all smiles and leaves just before the police arrive, who unceremoniously arrest Blaney, using the bag of clothes as evidence against him. Following his prosecution and imprisonment, Blaney injures himself in order to be moved to a less secure hospital from which he's able to escape, before sneaking back here to Rusk's flat, intent on killing his former friend.
✦ Behind you is Covent Garden Market – which we return to in a later stop. You can walk through the Market or around it to Russell Street on the right. Continue on Russell St for 130 yards, then turn right onto Catherine Street. The Nell of Old Drury Pub is on your right after 100 feet.
Still in the world of Frenzy, Blaney goes to The Nell of Old Drury early in the film and overhears the necktie murders being discussed. The interior scenes were actually filmed on set, but an establishing shot shows off the pub's distinctively carved bay window. The pub has stood here since the 1700s, and it is believed that Hitchcock's father visited it when he frequented Covent Garden Market as a greengrocer. It is likely that Hitchcock remembered the pub when he came back to London to film Frenzy.
Thinking back to the stop prior to this, we can tell how meticulously Hitchcock had planned the drama of Frenzy. As a London boy whose father had worked in the area, he was determined to have the layout of his film be as realistic as possible. The main locations for the film are all tightly packed around Covent Garden, ensuring that the characters can move through the space in real time. The close-set crowded locations also create the uneasy sense of a trap, as both the police and Rusk close in on Blaney.
✦ Retrace your steps along Catherine Street, and take a left on Russell Street. Then, take the first right onto Bow Street. After about 100 feet, the Bow Street Tavern is on your right.
This tavern appears in Frenzy under its old name, the Globe Public House, though it is easily recognised from its bright red façade. Blaney, at the start of the film, works for the Globe and lives in one of the rooms above. However, when he is caught stealing a small drink from one of the beer taps he's immediately fired, beginning a chain of events that lead to Blaney's implication in the necktie murders.
This is also the pub where Babs works. After she seemingly disappears for a day her boss calls the police to inform them that Babs left with Blaney the night before. When Babs returns to collect her things, her boss tells Babs what he's done, warning her to stay away from Blaney. This sparks an argument in front of all of the customers, after which Babs quits. When she rushes out she runs straight into Rusk, who chillingly cannot wait to offer her a place to stay.
✦ Continue North on Bow Street for about 100 yards and turn left onto Floral Street. Take the next right onto James Street, and walk down towards Covent Garden Market. The market can be crowded so find a quiet place to stop and look at it.
When Hitchcock returned to London after fifty years of making films the US, he was determined to recreate the market here as he remembered it: lively, loud, and colourful. Rusk works at the market, and we see him there as the charismatic, charming salesman. But he is also able to hide his misdeeds within the market, even taking advantage of its late hours to dispose of Babs’ body by hiding it in a potato truck. Hitchcock captured the energy of the bustling market, and the constant noise and movement add to the frenzy of the police and newspaper attacks on Blaney. This is a place of drama and uncertainty, something our next horror film picked up on.
Covent Garden is home to the Royal Opera House, which we passed on the way to and from the Bow Street Tavern, and was the setting for Terence Fisher's adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera (1962). Notably, the film moved the action from Paris to London, and though filmed on location at Wimbledon Theatre, the Royal Opera House is supposedly where the enraged Phantom and his hunchbacked assistant threatened the players and kill several members of the opera company. In a key feature of the film, the passages beneath the Royal Opera House lead to the Thames embankment. No such tunnels exist at the Royal Opera House, but they may have been inspired by the hidden tunnel that ran between the nearby Nell of Old Drury pub and Theatre Royal. The pub gets its name from the 17th century actress Eleanor ‘Nell’ Gwyn, one of the first ladies on the English stage and mistress to Charles II. The tunnel running between the pub and the theatre, where Nell occasionally performed, became part of London lore when it was suggested that Charles II could have used it to visit his mistress in secret. Though there is no hard evidence, the story of hidden tunnels in Covent Garden no doubt helped make the tunnels in Phantom of the Opera seem plausible to the audience.
✦ Retrace your steps along James Street and continue towards Covent Garden Station. At the station, turn right on to Long Acre. Continue on Long Acre for 120 yards and turn right onto Mercer Street. Continue on Mercer Street for 175 yards until you come to Seven Dials – a seven-way road junction with an elegant multi-faced sundial.
In Robert Day's Corridors of Blood (1958), eminent physician Dr Thomas Bolton, played by Boris Karloff, volunteers his time in a woman's hospital in Seven Dials. The distinctive star-patterned streets of the Seven Dials were recreated at MGM Studios in Borehamwood to mark an area of extreme poverty at the time the film was set (the 19th century). Here we see Bolton treat destitute, starving sex workers and their malnourished children, offering them both kindness and respect as well as medical attention. The scenes show that Bolton is a good man before he goes mad during his experiments with anaesthetic. Once addicted to the drug, Bolton is blackmailed by an innkeeper, his wife, and their menacing friend, ‘Resurrection Joe’. In a manner reminiscent of Burke and Hare's ghoulish activities earlier on this walk, Joe forces Bolton to write death certificates for the bodies he claims to have robbed from graves so that he can sell them legitimately to medical schools. When one of the women Bolton treated at this clinic is brought before him, he realises that Joe is up to much worse than graverobbing.
✦ Walk down Earlham Street (between a Caffè Nero and the Lumas Art Centre at the time of writing) to the junction with Shaftesbury Avenue. Turn left on to Shaftesbury Avenue and find a quiet place to stop.
In the seventies and eighties, Shaftesbury Avenue was part of London's red-light district, lined with pornography theatres and smut shops. This leering atmosphere is captured as characters walk through Soho in both Death Line and An American Werewolf in London, where bright lights draw male punters in for a good time. Though the character has changed somewhat, the crowded avenue is still of interest to horror fans. In 28 Weeks Later, Tammy and Andy along with their two military protectors, walk down a deserted Shaftesbury Avenue. As they proceed through the quiet streets, dark in the twilight with the occasional flash of neon, the city feels like an uncanny wasteland. Shaftesbury Avenue also appears in the final scenes of Gerard Johnson's serial-killer horror Tony (2009), as the titular character walks through the bright lights of the area towards Piccadilly Circus. The congested nature of Shaftesbury Avenue effectively camouflages this serial killer amongst the crowd, making his unremarkable looks chilling in their banality: Johnson seems to be suggesting that anyone in this city could be a murderer, there could even be a Tony brushing past you right now.
✦ Continue on Shaftesbury Avenue and take the second left after Earlham Street onto Charing Cross Road. Continue on Charing Cross Road for 175 yards before you reach Leicester Square Station. At the corner, turn right onto Cranbourn Street and after about 100 yards you will come to Leicester Square, a lively square populated by multiple cinemas.
In Freddie Francis’ light horror movie Son of Dracula (1974), Count Downe, the half-human half-vampire son of the Prince of Darkness, comes to Leicester Square to enjoy the lighter side of life, blending anonymously into the city's crowds. He even performs a song on the piano at a nearby Soho club, which is unsurprising given that Downe is played by renowned musician Harry Nilsson. Nilsson presents Downe as a rock vampire, attracted to the neighbourhood for its creativity and bohemian leanings. In the sixties, the Empire, visible on the north side of the square, was remodelled to include a dance hall, while the Prince Charles Cinema on Leicester Place brought a more diverse repertoire of films to the area, originally showing pornographic films before moving on to screenings of cult classics like Jim Sharman's notorious The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). At the same time, the legendary Cavern in the Town (now the Leicester Square Theatre) held gigs by The Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols, and The Who. This is exactly where Downe and his family advisor (played by Ringo Starr) would go on a night out in London, a comfortable venue for his vampire persona. As if to confirm the connection, the film momentarily shatters the fourth wall when Downe stops at the window of a music shop and sees the album cover for Son of Dracula – recorded by Nilsson to coincide with the release of the film.
Leicester Square, like Shaftesbury Avenue or Covent Garden, allows horror directors to play an unsettling game of hide and to seek. The surge of the crowd is a form of comfortable camouflage that may offer protection for the likes of Downe, but also conceals any manner of sin or sinner. Films like these defy the common horror trope that you are safer amongst people than you are alone, and remind city dwellers that places like London are always threatening, primarily because of the people who inhabit them.
