London Urban Legends

London Urban Legends gathers the rumours, warnings and modern folk tales attached to the capital, from royal gossip and criminal lore to stories beneath its streets. Scott Wood considers how such narratives take shape, circulate and change, while separating reported fact from embellishment and invention.

Among the stories are the corpse supposedly seen on the Tube, the claim that an American bought London Bridge believing it was Tower Bridge, and the rumour that Hitler wanted to live in Balham. Other chapters consider plague pits, razor blades, the Hackney Marshes, urban foxes, London’s big cats and parakeets allegedly descended from birds kept by Jimi Hendrix. Together, these accounts form a folklore map of modern London.