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10 stops · about 0.0 km on foot · London, United Kingdom

Dark history around London (part 2)

Follow the stops in order. Each is a documented story set at or near this spot.

Open the walking route in Maps See it on the Dark Atlas

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  1. Start · London · 1562

    The Poisoned Coat Meant for the Queen's Man

    Assassins bypassed his food and laced his riding coat with poison meant to seep in through his sweat.

  2. same spot · London · 1563

    The Poisoned Pages of a Martyr's Book

    Conspirators laced the corners of his manuscript pages with arsenic to silence the writer who exposed Bloody Mary.

  3. same spot · London · 1517

    The Riot That Turned Cannons On London Itself

    A thousand citizens rampaged against foreign workers until the Tower fired its own artillery on the city.

  4. same spot · London · 1485

    The Sickness That Killed in Hours and Vanished

    In 1485 a fever reached London that could kill within a day. It returned four more times, crossed the Channel once, and after 1551 was never seen again. Its cause is still unknown.

  5. same spot · London · 1266

    The Whipping Behind The Baker's Dozen

    That friendly thirteenth loaf wasn't generosity; it was a medieval baker's insurance against a public flogging.

  6. same spot · London · 1611

    The Cross-Dressing Criminal Who Died in Her Bed

    A pickpocket and forger who smoked a pipe on stage in men's clothes, she outlived every man who tried to stop her.

  7. same spot · London · 1690

    The Fashion That Killed Hundreds of Women

    A candle and a wide flammable skirt were all it took, and it happened to countless women for two centuries.

  8. same spot · London · 1797

    The Feminist Philosopher Killed by Childbirth

    She wrote one of history's first feminist manifestos, then died days after giving birth to the daughter who wrote Frankenstein.

  9. same spot · London · 60

    The Queen Rome Flogged Into A Rebellion

    Rome seized her kingdom, flogged her, and let her daughters be assaulted — she answered by burning three cities to the ground.

  10. same spot · London · 1782

    The Wife-Beating Law That Never Existed

    A viral fact about a wife-beating law is fake, but the real legal history it hides is far darker than the myth.

Coordinates mark the place of each story, and some are approximate. Check opening times and access before you go.