Witchcraft, Ancient Cults & MI15 Spy Secrets

London’s strangest stories hide below street level. This three-hour walking tour links Roman worship, old churches, executions, ghosts, astrologers, and lesser-known corners of the City of London, making it a good pick once you have seen the major sights. I especially like the private guide format, which gives your group room to ask questions, and the focus on small historical details that are easy to miss when you walk through the city alone.

The route also has a useful sense of movement. It begins at Bleeding Heart Yard and finishes beside Monument station, so you cross a large section of central London rather than returning to the starting point. The main drawback is the price: at $371.59 per person, this is a serious spend, especially for a three-hour walk. The value depends heavily on your group size and your interest in unusual history.

The tour title promises witchcraft and MI15 spy secrets, but the supplied route gives the clearest detail about Roman cults, pagan worship, medieval churches, public executions, and Bloody Mary. If those subjects appeal to you, the walk offers a different side of London without spending the day inside standard museums.

Key points to know before booking

• Roman London begins beneath Bloomberg’s modern offices: The London Mithraeum preserves the remains of a secretive underground cult temple from the Roman period.
• A private guide leads the entire walk: Only your group participates, which allows for questions and a more personal pace.
• The route links five unusual City sights: You visit the Mithraeum, St. Mary Woolnoth, Cornhill House, St. Bartholomew the Great, and Smithfield Market.
• The walk crosses centuries in about three hours: Roman religion, medieval churches, the Great Fire, and executions all appear on one compact route.
• The endpoint is convenient for onward plans: The tour finishes by Monument Underground station, near London’s financial district.
• One important admission cost is separate: Entry to the London Mithraeum is not included, while some churches are free and Smithfield Market is listed as included.

Why this private walk feels different from standard London sightseeing

Most first-time London routes point you toward the Tower, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, or the London Eye. This experience takes another path. It is aimed at people who already know the famous landmarks or who prefer stories about belief, fear, ritual, punishment, and the odd corners of the city.

The private format matters here. A guide talking about an ancient cult or a church buried beneath later buildings needs room to explain details. With only your own group on the booking, you can ask for more context, pause over a detail, or move along when a site has been covered.

The tour lasts about three hours and begins at noon. That timing makes it easy to fit around a morning museum visit or an afternoon plan. You should still allow enough time for walking between the stops, since the route is on foot and covers several parts of the City of London.

One previous customer gave the experience five stars and called it amazing, while praising the female guide’s friendly manner and strong command of the subject. That is the clearest personal feedback available, and it points to the guide as a major part of the experience. Since this is a private activity, your enjoyment will depend less on group dynamics and more on how well the guide matches your curiosity.

Entering the Roman world at the London Mithraeum

The London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE is the route’s strongest historical anchor. The site has been central to London for roughly two thousand years, and the remains here connect the modern business district with Roman religious life.

The Mithraic cult first appeared in Rome during the first century AD and spread through the Roman Empire over the next 300 years. Its followers included merchants, soldiers, and imperial administrators. Meetings took place in private temples, often below ground, in dark windowless rooms. That setting alone helps explain why the cult has attracted so much attention.

At the center of Mithraic belief was the image of Mithras killing a bull inside a cave. This scene, known as the tauroctony, remains open to interpretation. You are not simply looking at old foundations. You are confronting a religious tradition whose symbols and rituals are still not fully understood.

The visit at this stop is listed as about ten minutes, so do not expect a long museum session. Admission to the Mithraeum is not included in the tour price, an important point when calculating the total cost. If Roman archaeology is your main reason for booking, confirm the current admission arrangements before you go.

I like the contrast between the modern Bloomberg building and the buried temple below it. London often gives you this kind of collision between present-day offices and ancient remains, but you can easily walk past without knowing what is underneath. The guide’s role is to make that contrast meaningful rather than just point out a fragment of Roman masonry.

St. Mary Woolnoth and the older sacred ground below London

The second stop is St. Mary Woolnoth, a church whose site has been used for worship for at least 2,000 years. Traces of Roman and pagan religious buildings have been found under the present church’s foundations.

That detail changes how you see the building. The church is not an isolated medieval or later structure placed on an empty plot. It occupies ground that has drawn religious activity for many centuries. The tour uses this site to show how one sacred location can outlast the beliefs practiced there.

The visit is planned for about ten minutes, and admission is free. That makes it an easy stop even if you are watching your budget. You may find the exterior more important than a long interior visit, since the main point is the site’s layers and what lies beneath them.

This is also where the tour’s theme of old London becomes practical. Streets and buildings change, but certain locations continue to attract people. You get a clearer sense of the city as a place rebuilt again and again, rather than a collection of buildings from one neat period.

The devilish terracotta figures at Cornhill House

Cornhill House offers one of the route’s most unusual visual details: three devilish terracotta figures connected to a long-running local quarrel. They were made to mock worshippers at the neighboring St. Peter upon Cornhill, an old City church now almost submerged at street level by surrounding office buildings.

This is exactly the sort of detail you could miss on an ordinary walk. The figures are not a grand monument, and the church next door is not presented as a major attraction. Yet together they show how religious rivalry, street design, and urban construction can leave behind strange reminders.

The stop lasts around ten minutes. Admission is not included, so the value comes mainly from the guide’s explanation and your ability to notice the figures in context. If you enjoy odd public art and local disputes more than formal museum displays, this may be one of the most memorable stops.

The buried appearance of St. Peter upon Cornhill also gives you a useful lesson in London’s changing street levels. Office buildings and later construction have altered the way older structures appear, sometimes making them look as if they have sunk into the city.

St. Bartholomew the Great and the Great Fire

The Church of St. Bartholomew the Great is one of the few medieval churches to survive the Great Fire of London in 1666. That fact gives the stop a clear historical role, even for visitors who are not especially interested in church architecture.

A ten-minute visit is enough to place the church within the wider story of the City. The Great Fire destroyed much of London, yet a small number of older buildings survived. St. Bartholomew the Great helps you picture how rare these survivors are.

Admission is free. As with St. Mary Woolnoth, the short stop means the guide’s storytelling is central. You will not have hours to study every architectural feature, but you should gain a sense of why this church matters and how much of old London disappeared around it.

This stop also adds balance to the tour. The route is not only about secret cults and sinister tales. It includes an actual surviving medieval building, giving you a physical link to London before the fire and before the modern City rose around it.

Smithfield Market, executions, and Bloody Mary

The final listed stop is Smithfield Market, where the mood turns toward public punishment and political violence. You see places of execution and hear a story connected with Bloody Mary.

Smithfield is a strong ending because it brings the tour’s themes of fear and belief into public view. The Mithraeum represents private ritual in a hidden room. Smithfield represents punishment displayed before a crowd. Together, the stops show two very different ways that power and religion shaped daily life.

The visit is scheduled for about ten minutes, and admission is included. The information supplied does not specify the exact execution sites or the full Bloody Mary story, so you should treat this as a guided historical stop rather than a long museum visit.

If you prefer cheerful sightseeing, this part may feel grim. That is also the point. London’s past includes violence, religious conflict, and harsh punishment, and the tour does not limit itself to pretty buildings. You should book with the expectation of hearing unsettling stories alongside the architectural and archaeological ones.

What the title promises, and what the route clearly delivers

The title refers to witchcraft, ancient cults, and MI15 spy secrets. The route details most clearly support the ancient cults portion, along with stories about pagan sites, astrologers, ghosts, churches, executions, and Bloody Mary.

There is not enough specific information to explain which MI15 locations you will visit or how much time is given to spy history. The same is true for the witchcraft material. You should ask the provider before booking if those subjects are your main reason for choosing this walk.

That does not make the tour a poor choice. It simply helps you set the right expectations. The clearest identity of the experience is a private, story-led walk through lesser-known London sites connected to ancient religion, old churches, urban change, and public punishment.

Is $371.59 per person good value?

At $371.59 per person, this tour costs far more than a standard group walking tour. The price is easier to justify for a private group that wants a guide focused only on its interests. If you are booking alone or as a couple, the cost may feel high for three hours.

The guide is the main value. You are not paying only to see buildings you could locate on a map. You are paying for the connections between them: Roman and pagan worship beneath later churches, a secretive cult beneath a modern office building, medieval survival after the Great Fire, and execution sites tied to political and religious conflict.

The tour offers group discounts, but no discount amount is provided. Check the final price for your party before committing. If you are traveling with several people, the private format may become more reasonable when divided across the group.

The London Mithraeum admission is not included, so add that possible expense. St. Mary Woolnoth and St. Bartholomew the Great are listed as free, and Smithfield Market admission is included. These details keep the extra costs limited, but the Mithraeum is the one charge you should remember.

Meeting point, walking demands, and timing

The tour starts at Bleeding Heart Yard in London EC1N at noon. This is a fixed meeting point, so check your route carefully and arrive with enough time to find the entrance area.

It ends next to Monument station on King William Street, London EC4R 9AA. That is useful if you want to continue sightseeing, catch the Underground, or head toward another appointment without retracing your steps.

The activity is conducted on foot. Most people can participate, and the tour is near public transportation. Service animals are allowed. No detailed information is provided about the distance, stairs, or seating, so you should ask the provider if mobility is a concern.

A mobile ticket is available, and confirmation is sent at booking. You can cancel for a full refund if you do so at least 24 hours before the local start time. Changes made inside that 24-hour window are not accepted, and no refund is offered for late cancellation.

Who should book this London history experience?

I would recommend this tour to you if you have already covered London’s headline sights and want stories that are easy to miss. It suits people who enjoy Roman history, religious history, folklore, old churches, public punishments, and strange architectural details.

The private format also works well for a family or small group with mixed interests. You can ask the guide to explain the Roman cult in more detail, focus on church history, or spend more time on the darker stories if the group prefers.

I would be more cautious if you want a broad survey of London or a tour built around famous landmarks. You may also want clarification about the witchcraft and MI15 material before paying the high per-person price. The strongest documented content concerns Roman religion and unusual City of London sites.

Should you book it?

Book this experience if you value a private guide, enjoy unsettling historical stories, and have already seen the standard London attractions. The London Mithraeum and the ancient religious sites give the walk a clear purpose, while Smithfield and the old churches add darker and more familiar strands of the city’s past.

Skip it if $371.59 feels too steep for three hours, or if spy history and witchcraft are your only interests. Before booking, confirm how much time the guide gives to those subjects and check the separate Mithraeum admission. For the right group, this is an unusual way to read London’s streets, one buried temple, old church, and execution site at a time.

FAQ

Where does the tour start?

The tour starts at Bleeding Heart Yard, London EC1N, UK.

Where does the tour end?

It ends next to Monument Underground station on King William Street, London EC4R 9AA.

What time does the tour begin?

The scheduled start time is 12:00 pm.

How long does the tour last?

The experience lasts approximately three hours.

Is this a private tour?

Yes. Only your group participates in the activity.

Is a professional guide included?

Yes. A professional guide is included in the tour price.

Is admission to the London Mithraeum included?

No. Admission to the London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE is not included.

Are any admissions free?

Yes. St. Mary Woolnoth and St. Bartholomew the Great are listed with free admission.

Can I cancel for a full refund?

Yes. You can cancel at least 24 hours before the local start time for a full refund.

Can most people take part?

Most people can participate, the tour is near public transportation, and service animals are allowed. Detailed information about walking distance and steps is not provided.