Belated Spooky Soho Update

Hi all,

I'm so sorry it's taken this long to do the post but since I was made redundant again on the 30th my life has actually been insane - but i'll come on to that on another post tomorrow as today is all about the final week at work and Spooky Soho.

This year my colleagues and I wanted to make the week a little bit more authentic to the Georgian house, which is an issue when you consider that halloween as a celebration came about with the Victorians.... hmmmm. But if I do say so myself, we nailed it with the final scheme. Now due credit goes to Peter and Emily who took the lead and did all the work on the cellar, leaving me free to design the craft activites and the visitor centre/garden scavenger hunt.

But without further ado - the spooky soho experience!

When first you enter the cellar complex you are asked to 'stand and deliver!' as the highwayman greats you. In the 18th century, highwaymen were prolific and the most famous of all? Dick Turpin!

You then turn and enter the cellar system itself and are greated by the sounds of a tourture chamber (unseen)..... actually it was much darker than this, but my camera self adjusted the lighting

The next room you enter is all about the gothic, with three windows showing many of the ideas that were feared in the period......once again, we were setting history to rights as gothic symbols were the work of the 18th century, by the time the Victorian writers came along, it was already a well established genre of literature!

Moving ever onwards, you sneak a glimps to your right and come face to face with the grave robbers. With public executions become less common, medics in the period had to source their bodies for dissection and lessons from elsewhere and so the era of the grave robbers was born.

Round the corner and don't be decieved by your eyes - yes you did just see the headless lady....... again the idea of ghosts and tourtured souls was a strong idea in Georgian times and the image of the headless lady is a classic which has stood the test of time

And finally we come to the Guillotine room with its severed heads and sounds. With the French revolution in full flow and the guillotine being used in excess, the British were deeply afraid that the deeply rooted disillusionment with the system of rule would come over the water and take England by storm and with it the reign of the guillotine! eeek!

So there you have it. Spooky Soho's cellar! We even did a short promo video for it which you can find here.

It really was a great week, it went down so well with both our managers and visitors alike, so hopefully the idea will get an airing again next year - but who knows!

I promise I'll be back with another update and some crafting to share tomorrow but for now I must run.

Have a great day and happy crafting