I became a zombie – London Tombs

I have always dreamt of being a zombie so when the chance to become a zombie for a day at the award winning top horror attraction in the World at The London Bridge Experience & London Tombs came up I just leapt at the opportunity.

Whilst growing up I watched many horror movies with my father from a very young age and so I am a massive fan of horror movies.  Some of my favourite films are 28 Days Later, Nightmare on Elm Street and Child’s Play.

Zombies

Zombies though are most definitely one of my favourite monsters to be portrayed in any film. Why you might ask? As they are us but as the living dead which to me makes it more frightening to know that this could potentially happen be it via a deadly virus that turns us all into a zombie like being or event an act of god or the devil.

The most fascinating thing about zombies is that there are so many different types which have all been shown throughout movies and television shows series Z-Nation and The Walking Dead.  Some of the classic zombies from older movies walk really slowly then your more modern day ones can run alarmingly really fast.

Here is a list of different types of zombies:

Crawler – a slow and dumb zombie.

Shambler – slowish and walks usually hunched over with arms typically flailing, with a shuffling movement.

Walker – a zombie that is a reasonably fast walker. Usually they travel in large groups.

Runner – often called a Rager and are the most frightening of zombies. They move with lightning speed and an unwavering grace that is something you would not expect from the undead. They also have howling screams.

All zombies love to kill humans and most love to eat the brain and guts of us humans so it is best to avoid them at all costs.  If you came across any my advice is to run, hide or cover yourself in blood so you are undetectable.  To kill a zombie the only way is to cut off it’s head completely.

The London Bridge Experience & London Tombs

For my zombie for a day experience I was allowed to bring another blogger to join me to also be transformed into a zombie.  So I just had to choose my best mate and horror fan Steve.

Upon arriving at The London Bridge Experience & London Tombs we firstly had a history tour through the tombs. We ventured on through this immersive and psychotically attraction starting off with meeting John Rennie. John was born in London on 3 September 1874 and became one of the most famous bridge builders in history.  He constructed many bridges in particular the famous London Bridge.  He started the construction of London Bridge from the designs of his father in 1824. The bridge was then finished and opened in 1831.

After learning some more about John we then stepped into a museum on London Bridge where we saw a model of what it used to look like back in 1831 before it was destroyed by the great London fire.  The rest of the London Bridge Experience tour we learnt further about Roman prisons, Boudica, the Iceni Tribe, the keeper of London Bridge’s decapitated heads which were put on sticks, learnt from St Thomas A Becket about witches and gory information about the famous London serial killer Jack the Ripper.

After learning so much about London and the gruesome history from back in the 18th century on wards we then had our photo taken to add to our history books of our life.

“Would you be brave enough?”

It was then onto the London Tombs tour for the brave.  We scrambled through a boneyard full of dead corpses, ran through a furnace of death, came across a big spiders nest, met some circus freaks, came face to face with some scary dolls, escaped from a demented doctor, ran through a crate maze whilst avoiding zombies who wanted our brains before coming across a bloody butcher who just wanted to kill us for fun.

Becoming a zombie for the day

It was now time for me and my friend Steve to now become a real life zombie to scare unsuspecting visitors throughout their journey through the The London Tombs.

Chloe was our make-up artist and teacher for the day and she showed us to the green room where the zombies, I mean staff all hang out whilst waiting for brave groups of people to adventure through the The London Bridge Experience & London Tombs.

We could choose any of the costumes on display.  There was so many it was hard to decide.  I initially chose a strait-jacket but I soon changed that after a time as I could not take photos whilst in a strait-jacket.  So I changed into a nurse’s outfit later. Steve chose an Admiral’s long black coat which looked very fetching on him.

It was then onto Chloe to make us up.  We both opted to obviously be a zombie and have plenty of cuts and peeling skin on our faces as we wanted to look as much as like the undead as possible.

Here is the stages of my transformation from a human to a flesh eating insane zombie.

Then I decided to change into a nurses outfit as I mentioned earlier I learnt it is not easy to take photos within a strait-jacket.

“Who is this irresistible creature who has an insatiable love for the dead?” Quote by Rob Zombie

Next was onto Steve’s transformation.

“Don’t we look DEADtastic?”

It was then onto having a few lessons on how to be a zombie from the screeching like a zombie through to the zombie walk.  I think we both nailed it down to the tee as we both are zombie fans.

After this initial run down it was out to the light for some brains, no sorry I mean lunch. Whilst eating my lunch from Roast on the pavement kerb on the outskirts of Borough Market we really did get some odd looks of some people and even someone took a photo of us which was rather amusing.

“Not brains”

It was then back into the darkness of the tombs to scare the hordes of people that will be adventuring through the tombs in the afternoon.

As it was very hot outside and with the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan happening today we did not get to scare that many groups alas. However the seven groups that we did get to scare was extremely exciting.

Chloe led us through the London Tombs to decide which themed room we would like to start scaring people in.  With there being so many to choose from such as the spider room and the clown circus it was really hard to decide. However once we unscrambled the thoughts in our brains me and Steve both decided to start in the boneyard / furnace area being proper scary zombies a bit like a walker type one walking and growling and slamming ourselves into the cage sides. This whole room made me think of the classic film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Next we scared three set of groups of different people within the doctor’s surgery.

I sat on top of a decaying corpse on a table whilst eating his guts out and Steve lay on a bed having a mental fit and leaping up at people. This themed room made me think horror movies set within hospitals or starting out within a hospital room such as 28 Days Later.

After we then went and changed into clowns and became zombie clowns. With me not personally being a fan of clowns this was quite a hard role to play.  So onto the world of circus freaks to clown about in.  The horror movies that spring to my mind which involves clowns were Killer Klowns from Outer Space and It.  Now they are scary clowns and ones I would not want to come face to face with.

Anyway within this area we both give our best chilling laughs possible to scare the heebie-jeebies out of people whilst shooting them with an air rifle.  It was quite amusing but wow that air rifle is powerful I think that scared me more than seeing myself and Steve as clowns.

For our final finish to the day we decided to dress back to our original costumes from the start as I just love being a nurse and Steve loves anything military.

We decided to finish with a scare in the bathroom area within the doctor’s surgery. Here we scared people by growling like a zombie and jumping out from behind the shower curtains or pressing a button which made a set of curtains blow literally right across the whole room which was very effective.

We then finally had a group photo with the awesome zombie staff before peeling away our zombie flesh and washing it off.

Then we headed down to the shop to collect our photo to keep as a reminder of our time as a zombie and a goody bag as a memento.

Zombie love

I loved learning and discovering everything that goes on behind the scenes of this top horror attraction from the art of scaring people to learning how to be scary. Chloe was an awesome zombie teacher and made us up so well with her FX makeup skills and gave us both great advice on how to recreate the look for when it comes to Halloween.

Even though by the end of the day I practically had lost my voice from all the zombie screeching it seriously was an adrenaline filled day and one that I will dream, not have nightmares about for years to come.

So if you want to be a zombie for a day then I highly recommend booking* to become one and where better than the world’s top scariest horror attraction in the world.  They have also won winner of the best guided tour group leisure awards and the UK’s winner of the most scariest attraction for over 8 years in a row now.

Want to be a zombie for a day

You can purchase via London Tombs directly.

On the day you’ll be made up as a zombie, taught the skills of being a zombie, be treated to two course lunch at the nearby Mudlark and scare people throughout the tombs.  Plus at the end of the day you’ll also get to take home a souvenir photograph as well as a t-shirt as memento of your day.

Don’t want to be a zombie but want to visit

If you don’t fancy being a zombie but love the idea of escaping zombie’s then you can always enter The London Bridge & London Tombs for their history and scare tour. Tickets can be purchased on line via The London Bridge Experience or on the gate.

The London Bridge Experience,
2-4 Tooley Street,
London Bridge,
London
SE1 2SY

Opening times
Weekdays
Doors open from 10am – 5pm Show
Weekends
9.30am – 6pm

Thank you to The London Bridge Experience & London Tombs for letting me and Steve from Love Pop Ups London come along to get made up as a zombie to scare people for the day.  This experience was complimentary from them but all views are my own honest opinion.

Click link below to read the blogs from Steve who joint me on the day. All his views are of his own honest opinion.

Photos within this blog were taken by me, Steve and Chloe. 

The London Bridge Experience