Tower Bridge's Dead Man's Hole

The lowdown

Tucked beneath the northern approach to Tower Bridge is a small, easily missed riverside recess with a chilling name, Dead Man's Hole. The currents and tides of the Thames had a habit of carrying bodies, whether suicides, accidents or victims of crime, to this exact spot, so a mortuary alcove was built here to recover and hold them.

There was even a winch to haul the dead from the water. The grim little structure survives, complete with its old fittings, right beside one of the most photographed bridges in the world. It is free to find, a sombre and fascinating footnote to the river's darker history.