Halloween has a way of making even the most familiar city feel mysterious, and London, with its foggy streets and centuries-old buildings, really leans into that. If you’re the sort of person who likes a pint with a side of goosebumps, the capital has no shortage of pubs that promise both. These are not just cosy corners for a Sunday roast; they are old boozers with long memories, creaky floorboards, and more than a few stories that refuse to stay in the past. Many have been serving drinks for hundreds of years, which means they have seen love, loss, celebration, and more than a little trouble. It’s no wonder some guests never quite checked out. From flickering lights and phantom footsteps to full-blown apparitions, the spirits on offer are not all in the bottle. So, grab a seat by the fire, keep one eye on the door, and consider this a toast to the most haunted watering holes in London. After all, what better way to mark Halloween than with a drink in a place where the walls could talk if they weren’t so busy sending chills down your spine?
Take The Bow Bells in Mile End, for example. This is a pub with more than 150 years of history under its belt, and its owners will happily tell you that it comes with a resident prankster. The ghost in question has a peculiar sense of humour: it likes to flush the toilet in the women’s bathroom just as someone steps into the cubicle. Yes, really. There is a sign above the door warning guests to beware of the ghost, which is probably one of the more honest notices you’ll see in any London pub. The tale dates back to 1974, when a landlord, clearly fed up with the plumbing pranks, organised a séance to get rid of the so-called phantom flusher. Legend has it that when the spirit was asked to make itself known, the ladies’ toilet door flew open with such force that it shattered a glass window. So if you pop in for a quiet drink, don’t be surprised if you hear a flush and a giggle from a corner that looks empty. A little further into the city, near St Paul’s, stands the Viaduct Tavern, one of the last surviving Victorian gin palaces in London. It’s a beautiful old Fuller’s pub with ornate ceilings and a proper old-fashioned feel, but it has a heavier history, having once served as a jail. Strange chills and unexplained noises are part of the daily atmosphere, but two tales stand out. In 1996, a manager was down in the cellar when the door slammed shut, the lights went out, and no matter how hard he pushed, he couldn’t get out. It was only when his wife heard his shouts and opened the door from the outside that he was freed, as if some old prison officer had decided to lock him up for the night. Then in 1999, two electricians working upstairs rolled up a carpet and felt an icy tap on the shoulder. When they turned, the rolled carpet lifted off the ground and dropped with a thud. They refused to come back until the pub’s manager assured them that the resident ghost, known as Fred, was harmless. Whether or not you believe in Fred, it’s hard to argue with a story that specific.
The Grenadier in Belgravia has one of the saddest ghost stories on this list. Originally built in 1720 as a military mess hall, it later served as a home for the Grenadier Guards after the Battle of Waterloo. While the officers enjoyed the upstairs, the lower-ranking soldiers drank and gambled in the cellar. According to local legend, a young soldier named Cedric was caught cheating at cards one night, and his drunken comrades beat him to death. His ghost is said to have haunted the cellar ever since, especially around September, the time of his death. People describe sudden icy chills, objects moving on their own, and a strange feeling of being watched. The pub’s customers have tried to make amends on his behalf by sticking banknotes to the ceiling, a strange ritual meant to pay off his gambling debt. It seems the debt, however, has yet to be settled. If you go, you can add a note to the collection and raise a glass to Cedric, who may still be hovering somewhere between the beer taps and the afterlife. A couple of miles east, in Spitalfields, The Ten Bells has a darker and more notorious association. This is the pub said to have been visited by Jack the Ripper in the 1880s, and it is also the last place Mary Kelly, one of his victims, was seen alive before her murder in 1888. The pub even changed its name to the Jack the Ripper in 1976 before reverting to The Ten Bells in 1988. Staff in the 1990s reported seeing the ghost of a Victorian man, sometimes so clearly that they woke up next to him, only for him to vanish. But the pub has its own gruesome history beyond the Ripper. A former landlord, George Roberts, was murdered with an axe, and old press cuttings found in the cellar tell the story. It may be his restless spirit that haunted the upper floors, a place so unsettling that even experienced mediums refused to stay there. If you visit, it might be wise to stay on the ground floor and keep your drink close.
Further north, near Baker Street, The Volunteer is a pub with a wartime name and a much older ghost. Just a few doors down from Sherlock Holmes’s fictional address, this pub was once a recruiting station during the Second World War, but the land has a history that stretches back to the seventeenth century. A grand house belonging to the wealthy Neville family stood here until a fire destroyed it in 1645, with the family trapped inside. Now the former master of the house, Rupert Neville, is said to haunt the cellar, appearing as a man in breeches who stomps across the floor and flicks light switches as he pleases. The pub has even been featured on Most Haunted, which is a sure sign that the owners are happy to lean into the legend. Neville, according to those who have encountered him, is not a friendly presence; he is described as evil and malicious, which makes it all the more impressive that the pub still feels so welcoming. And then there is The Spaniards Inn in Hampstead, a pub so old that Charles Dickens immortalised it in The Pickwick Papers. Its most famous ghostly resident is Dick Turpin, the infamous highwayman, who apparently still roams the upstairs rooms, making a racket with bangs and crashes through the night. Some say he is still trying to rob the place, or perhaps just looking for a way to make a dramatic exit. He is not alone, though. Downstairs, there is the ghost of a man known as Black Dick, who was run over by a horse and cart right outside the pub. And if that wasn’t enough, Turpin’s trusty horse is said to haunt the car park. So if you’re parking there, you might want to keep an eye out for phantom hoofbeats. It’s the kind of place where history and legend blur together, and every creaking floorboard sounds like a story waiting to be told.
In Highgate, The Flask offers a more romantic kind of haunting, if heartbreak counts as romantic. The pub is said to be haunted by the ghost of a Spanish barmaid who, back in the eighteenth century, discovered that her boyfriend, the landlord, had been unfaithful to her. Heartbroken, she supposedly killed herself in the cellar, and her restless spirit has been pestering patrons ever since. Staff and customers have reported strange reflections in the glass, sudden icy chills, and lights that flicker for no clear reason. It makes for an eerie atmosphere in a pub that otherwise feels like a charming slice of old London. Maybe the barmaid is just looking for someone who will listen to her side of the story, or maybe she wants to warn others not to trust a man in an apron. Either way, it adds a layer of melancholy to every sip. Over in Chelsea, the Hoop & Toy has a much more macabre story to tell. This pub has been standing since 1760, which makes it one of the oldest in the Kensington area. But it wasn’t until workers were constructing the nearby London Underground station that the truth came to light. When they broke through a wall in the pub’s basement, they made a grisly discovery: the space had been used by local churches to bind and entomb the bodies of dead priests. The pub was essentially built on top of a burial ground, and those disturbed spirits are thought to have been wandering the place ever since. They drift through the bar like lost souls waiting for something, maybe a pint and a packet of crisps, maybe just a way out. It’s a deeply unsettling thought, especially when you consider how many ordinary pub lunches have been enjoyed just a few feet above a forgotten graveyard. If walls could talk, the Hoop & Toy’s walls might have a few prayers to say.
Whether you believe in ghosts or not, there is something undeniably special about walking into a pub that has been standing for centuries. The floorboards are uneven, the ceilings are low, and every scratch on the bar feels like a tiny piece of history. These are places where people have celebrated births, mourned losses, fallen in love, and perhaps even been murdered. It makes sense, then, that some memories might linger. Maybe the phantom flusher at The Bow Bells is just a faulty mechanism, and maybe the taps on the shoulder at the Viaduct Tavern are nothing more than old pipes settling. But there is no denying that these stories give the pubs a character you can’t find in a modern chain bar. They invite you to look at the world a little differently, to imagine the thousands of drinkers who came before you, and to wonder what they might have left behind. At the very least, they make for great conversation starters. You can sit there with a friend, point to a shadowy corner, and ask whether they heard something, too. You can add a banknote to the ceiling at The Grenadier and feel like you’ve done your part to settle a debt that is centuries old. You can walk through the bar at The Ten Bells and think about the Victorian Londoners who once stood where you’re standing, unaware of the darkness lurking in their streets. And if you’re brave enough, you can venture down a cellar or two, even though you’ve been warned. That’s the beauty of a haunted pub. It offers just enough fear to make the evening memorable, but the beer, the fire, and the company are all there to remind you that you’re still among the living. So this Halloween, don’t just go out for a drink. Go out for an experience. Raise your glass to the ghosts, the legends, and the stories that make London such a wonderfully eerie place. And if you feel a tap on your shoulder, don’t panic. It might just be a ghost, but it might also be the person next to you asking if you want another round.
