London Guided Walks » Episode 142: Monsters and Myths of London

Episode 142: Monsters and Myths of London

Explore the Monsters and Myths of London, revealing the outrageous history of umbrella-toting pioneers across four centuries.

Host: Hazel Baker

Hazel is an active Londoner, a keen theatre-goer and qualified CIGA London tour guide.

She has won awards for tour guiding and is proud to be involved with some great organisations. She is a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Marketors and am an honorary member of The Leaders Council.

Channel 5’s Walking Wartime Britain(Episode 3) and Yesterday Channel’s The Architecture the Railways Built (Series 3, Episode 7). Het Rampjaar 1672, Afl. 2: Vijand Engeland and Arte.fr Invitation au Voyage, À Chelsea, une femme qui trompe énormément.

🎧Other Halloween Episodes listeners may enjoy:

Episode 122: Haunted Underground Stations

Episode 28: The Ghost of Cock Lane Special

London’s Halloween Monsters: Spring-Heeled Jack, the Black Dog of Newgate, the Highgate Vampire & the Cornhill Devils

Hazel Baker hosts a Halloween special for the London History Podcast exploring enduring London legends and what they reveal about the city’s fears across eras. She recounts Spring-Heeled Jack’s 1830s Victorian panic, including letters to the Lord Mayor and the documented 1838 attack on 18-year-old Jane Alsop, then traces how the figure spread through newspapers, theatres, penny dreadfuls, and later fiction. Next is the Black Dog of Newgate, first recorded in Luke Hutton’s 1596 prison account: during famine, prisoners commit cannibalism and a vengeful spectral dog hunts the guilty, a tale later adapted for the stage and linked to Old Bailey sightings. She then covers the 1967–70 Highgate Vampire media frenzy, rival claims by David Farrant and Sean Manchester, the televised “vampire hunt,” and lingering controversy. Finally, she explains the 1893 Cornhill Devils—terracotta demons said to be architectural revenge—before pointing listeners to related podcast episodes.