Witchcraft, Ancient Cults & MI15 Spy Secrets

London has darker stories than its landmarks suggest. This private walking tour links Roman religion, old churches, devilish carvings, executions, ghosts, and spy-era secrets across the City of London. I like the focus on lesser-known London, and I like that your private guide can give your group undivided attention rather than delivering a speech to a crowd. The main drawback is the price: at $371.59 per person, this is a serious splurge for a three-hour walk.

You will walk between historic sites, with short stops at each one. The tour suits you best if you have already seen the Tower, Westminster, and St. Paul’s, and now want the stranger, more unsettling side of London. It is also a good fit for anyone who enjoys questions without neat answers, especially the mysteries surrounding Roman cults and old religious sites.

Five things to know before you book

• Roman London appears beneath a modern office district: The London Mithraeum shows how a private temple once served merchants, soldiers, and imperial officials.
• The route links religion and power: Churches, pagan sites, executions, and royal punishment all fit into one compact walk.
• Your guide is the main attraction: This is a private experience, so the pace and explanations belong to your group.
• Five main stops fill roughly three hours: The itinerary includes St. Mary Woolnoth, Cornhill House, St. Bartholomew the Great, and Smithfield Market.
• The price needs careful thought: Admission is free at some stops, but the Mithraeum ticket is not included, so the value rests mainly in the guiding.
• Cancellation is flexible until 24 hours before departure: After that point, the amount paid is not refunded.

A darker route through the City of London

The tour begins at Bleeding Heart Yard at noon and ends beside Monument Underground Station. That start and finish make practical sense. You begin near the old City and finish close to a major Tube stop, so you can continue sightseeing, find lunch, or head back to your hotel without arranging another ride.

The route covers a small but layered part of London. You are not crossing the whole city or stopping at every major sight. Instead, you move through streets where Roman worship, medieval Christianity, public punishment, and modern finance occupy the same few blocks.

I like that approach. London is often easiest to understand when you look down, not up. Office towers can hide old churches. Street levels have risen around medieval buildings. Modern construction has covered places that were once central to religious and civic life.

The three-hour duration should give the guide enough time to explain those changes without turning the outing into a rushed checklist. Still, you should expect to spend much of the experience outdoors and on foot. Comfortable shoes are a sensible choice.

London Mithraeum and the Roman mystery

The London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE is the strongest opening stop. The site has been a center of London life for roughly two thousand years, and the Roman temple beneath the modern Bloomberg building gives you a clear sense of how dramatically the city has changed above ground.

The Mithraic cult began in Rome during the first century AD and spread across the Roman Empire over the next 300 years. Its followers included merchants, soldiers, and imperial administrators. Meetings took place in dark, windowless temples, often built below ground.

That setting matters. This was not a public religion with an open temple facing a busy square. Mithraic worship took place in private spaces, which helps explain why the cult still feels secretive. Its central image shows Mithras killing a bull inside a cave. The meaning of this scene remains open to debate.

Your guide can help connect the site to the wider themes of the walk: hidden worship, old beliefs beneath newer institutions, and the way later London built over earlier London. The ten-minute stop listed for this location is short, so do not expect a full museum visit as part of the tour itself.

Admission to the Mithraeum is not included. That is an important cost detail, especially when the tour already runs $371.59 per person. Ask before booking whether your fee covers only the guiding and outdoor visit, or whether you need to arrange any separate entry. The supplied details identify the site but do not give an admission price.

For me, this stop is the clearest reason to consider the experience. If Roman religion interests you, the Mithraeum gives the tour a firm historical base. If you mainly want a long, atmospheric walk through old streets, the stop still adds useful context, but the separate admission may make the overall value harder to justify.

St. Mary Woolnoth and the older ground below

St. Mary Woolnoth is a short stop, but it carries an unusual claim. Worship has taken place on this site for at least 2,000 years. Traces of Roman and pagan religious buildings have been found under the foundations of the current church.

That fact changes how you see the church. You are not simply looking at an old Christian building. You are looking at a place where religious use continued across very different eras, with newer faiths taking root above older ones.

The stop is free, which helps balance the extra cost of the Mithraeum. The ten-minute visit will not provide time for a long architectural study, but the point is the location and its succession of beliefs.

I would pay close attention to the guide here. The building itself may not look as dramatic as some of London’s famous churches, yet the layers beneath it are the reason it belongs on this route. This is a good example of the tour’s method: it asks you to notice what the street does not easily reveal.

Cornhill House and three mocking devils

Cornhill House offers one of the tour’s oddest details. Three devilish terracotta figures appear on the building, designed as a long-lasting act of revenge against worshippers next door at St. Peter upon Cornhill.

St. Peter’s is an old City church now almost submerged at street level by office blocks. That detail is worth considering before you arrive. London’s changing street levels can make a medieval building seem oddly sunken, as if the modern city has slowly climbed around it.

The figures bring humor to a route otherwise filled with cults, executions, and ghosts. Their purpose was not simply decoration. They were meant to mock a neighboring congregation, turning a building facade into a permanent argument.

This ten-minute stop will appeal to you if you enjoy small details that are easy to miss. It is less useful if you want to enter major monuments or spend time on formal architecture. The stop is listed without admission included, so plan to view it from the outside unless your guide says otherwise.

St. Bartholomew the Great after 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 alone gives the stop weight. The fire destroyed much of the surrounding city, yet this church remained.

The visit is free and lasts about ten minutes. That is enough to appreciate its survival and hear why it matters, but not enough for a slow inspection of every architectural feature. If you are hoping for a detailed church tour, you may find the stop brief.

Its value comes from contrast. The route has already taken you to a Roman temple and a church built over older religious ground. Here, the focus shifts to survival. London has repeatedly been damaged, rebuilt, and covered over, but a few medieval buildings still give you a direct link to the city before the modern age.

The church also helps break up the more abstract parts of the tour. Roman cult practice can feel distant. A surviving medieval church gives you something visible and solid, a building that endured one of London’s most famous disasters.

Smithfield Market and the memory of public punishment

Smithfield Market brings the route to its harshest subject. You will see places associated with executions and hear a story connected with Bloody Mary.

This is not a cheerful sightseeing stop, and that is the point. London’s past was not only made by kings, merchants, and builders. It was also shaped by public punishment, religious conflict, and crowds watching authority impose its will.

The stop is listed as included and lasts about ten minutes. As with the rest of the walk, the guide’s explanation will shape the experience. You will want enough context to understand who was punished, why public executions mattered, and how the story fits the religious tensions of the period.

The name Smithfield Market may suggest only food and commerce, but the site carries older associations. This tour uses it to show how one part of London can change function while retaining memories of violence and ceremony.

If you are traveling with young children or anyone uncomfortable with grim subjects, consider that before booking. The tour title promises witchcraft, cults, and spy secrets, so dark material is not a surprise, but the route does not soften London’s more brutal stories.

Where do the witchcraft and MI15 secrets fit?

The title promises witchcraft, ancient cults, and MI15 spy secrets. The listed stops give the most detail about Roman religion, churches, devilish figures, and executions. They provide less specific information about the witchcraft and spy material.

That does not mean those subjects are absent. The tour is built around London’s hidden beliefs, strange stories, and secretive institutions, so they fit its overall theme. Still, I would not book this expecting a dedicated visit to a spy headquarters or a long technical account of MI15 operations.

Ask the provider for clarification if those subjects are your main reason for booking. The named stops suggest that the experience is primarily an on-foot City of London history tour, with darker stories woven through it rather than a museum-style presentation devoted to one topic.

This is one place where expectations matter. You are paying for a guide who connects scattered clues across the city. You are not paying for a full admission-based attraction at every stop.

What the private format adds

Only your group takes part, and that changes the feel of the walk. A private guide can adjust explanations, answer questions, and spend more time on the subjects that interest you most.

One published comment gave the tour five out of five and praised the woman leading it as very nice and well informed about the subject. That is the strongest positive signal available: the guide’s manner and command of the material appear to be central to the experience.

I would use the private format actively. Tell the guide at the start if you care most about Roman religion, old churches, executions, ghosts, witchcraft, or espionage. The route has enough themes to support different interests, but a three-hour schedule cannot treat every subject in equal depth.

The downside is cost. At $371.59 per person, a private walk becomes easier to justify for a small group that can share the experience and value personal attention. For one person or two people, the price is much harder to defend, especially since some stops are free and the Mithraeum admission is not included.

Group discounts are available, which may improve the calculation for larger parties. Check the final price carefully, including any separate admission you may need.

Timing, walking, and practical planning

The tour starts at 12:00 pm and lasts about three hours. A midday start works well if you prefer a relaxed morning, but it also uses a large part of the afternoon. Plan your next activity near Monument Station rather than across London.

The route ends at Monument Underground Station on King William Street. That is useful for onward transport and makes the walk easy to combine with other City sights. The start point is Bleeding Heart Yard in London EC1N, so leave time to locate the meeting point.

Mobile tickets are available, and confirmation is provided at booking. The experience is near public transportation, and service animals are allowed. Most people can take part, but the format remains a walking tour, so you should be comfortable moving between several city locations.

Free cancellation is available up to 24 hours before the start time. Cancel later than that and you will not receive a refund. Changes made inside that 24-hour period are not accepted. The tour also requires a minimum number of participants, and if the provider cancels because that minimum is not reached, you will be offered another date or experience, or a full refund.

Who should book this London walk?

I would recommend it most strongly to repeat visitors who have already covered London’s major sights. The route gives you a different reason to walk through the City, with small clues and unsettling stories replacing grand rooms and famous viewpoints.

It also suits you if you prefer a guide-led experience to reading plaques or searching for background on your phone. The private setting lets you ask why a Roman temple was underground, how a church survived the Great Fire, or why figures were placed on Cornhill House.

You may want to skip it if you want a low-cost introduction to London. The high per-person price, brief stops, and separate Mithraeum admission make this a specialist purchase rather than a general sightseeing bargain.

Should you book Witchcraft, Ancient Cults & MI15 Spy Secrets?

Book this tour if you value personal guiding and unusual stories more than famous landmarks. The Mithraeum, St. Mary Woolnoth, Cornhill House, St. Bartholomew the Great, and Smithfield Market create a thoughtful route through London’s religious and darker past.

I would be cautious if the advertised $371.59 price is for a small party and you expect substantial interior access. Several stops are short, some are free, and the Mithraeum ticket is not included. For a group that wants a private, focused walk and can use the group discount, the experience may be worthwhile. For budget-conscious visitors, London offers cheaper ways to see historic streets.

FAQ

Where does the tour start?

It starts at Bleeding Heart Yard in London EC1N, UK.

Where does the tour end?

The tour ends next to Monument Underground Station on King William Street, London EC4R 9AA.

What time does the tour begin?

The start time is 12:00 pm.

How long does the experience last?

The walking tour lasts approximately three hours.

Is this a private tour?

Yes. Only your group participates in the private activity.

Is admission to the London Mithraeum included?

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

Can I cancel for a full refund?

Yes, if you cancel at least 24 hours before the experience start time. Cancellations made less than 24 hours before departure are not refunded.