The Morpeth Arms

The Morpeth Arms stands on Millbank in Westminster, built in 1845 on the site of the notorious Millbank Prison, one of London’s most feared detention facilities. The pub contains a chilling secret, a tunnel that once connected the building to the prison, through which condemned prisoners were led to boats that would transport them to deportation ships on the Thames. This tunnel, which can still be accessed from the pub’s cellars, is one of London’s most intensely haunted locations. Staff and paranormal investigators who have ventured into the tunnel report hearing the clanking of chains, anguished sobbing, and the shuffling of feet as if a line of prisoners is being marched through the darkness. The apparitions of men and women in prison clothing have been seen in the tunnel, some reaching out pleadingly before vanishing, others simply staring with hollow, hopeless eyes.

The ghost most frequently encountered is that of a former prisoner who appears throughout the pub, particularly near the tunnel entrance. Witnesses describe a gaunt figure in tattered clothing, wrists bearing the marks of manacles, who seems confused and distressed, as if still trying to understand what fate awaits him. This spirit has been known to interact with the living, sometimes touching patrons on the shoulder or arm, leaving them with an overwhelming sense of despair and dread. Staff have reported finding wet footprints leading from the tunnel area into the pub, as if someone has just emerged from the river, though the footprints fade and disappear before they can be followed. The smell of Thames river water, damp and fetid, sometimes permeates areas of the pub despite modern plumbing and climate control.

Beyond the prison tunnel ghosts, the pub experiences regular poltergeist activity including glasses flying off shelves, doors slamming violently, and the sound of furniture being overturned in empty rooms. The upper floors, which once served various administrative purposes for the prison, are haunted by the apparition of a woman in Victorian dress who some believe may have been a matron or guard’s wife. Electronic equipment malfunctions regularly, particularly near the tunnel area, with cameras draining batteries instantly and recording devices capturing strange voices and sounds. Psychics who have visited the Morpeth Arms report being overwhelmed by the residual energy of fear, suffering, and hopelessness that permeates the building, the collected anguish of thousands of prisoners who passed through this location on their way to exile or execution. The pub serves as a haunted memorial to one of the darker aspects of British justice, where the condemned still walk and the weight of historical suffering refuses to fade.