Leadenhall Market Is Wrapped In Giant Purple Tentacles Again

Leadenhall Market Is Wrapped In Giant Purple Tentacles Again
Purple octopus like tentacles wriggle around the historic market
Leadenhall Market is one of the few buildings in London with its own Halloween costume.

If you walk by Leadenhall Market this October, do not adjust your peepers. Those really are six-metre-long purple tentacles wriggling out of the windows. Well, inflatable ones, anyhow.

Not many London buildings have their own Halloween costume, but the City of London's Victorian market (aka Diagon Alley if you're into a certain wizard saga) certainly does. Leadenhall Market first donned its monstrous calamari in October 2021, and clearly received some compliments, because it's wearing the same outfit yet again.

A shelf with a single eye and some 'cubed earwax'
"Two boxes of Cubed Earwax, one jar of Thickest Human Snot... and do you have any Banshee Balls left?"  Image: Hoxton Street Monster Supplies.

While you might struggle to find the rest of the monster's body hiding away in Leadenhall Market, it does have a branch of Hoxton Street Monster Supplies — an emporium of the gruesome peddling the likes of Thickest Human Snot, Extracted Finger Nails and Cubed Earwax. And on Monday 23 Thursday 26 October 2023 (11.30am- 4.30pm), it's running a special Monster Mail service, where you can become a penpal with a yeti, gremlin, dragon, werewolf or vampire. (£10 per letter, all proceeds to children’s charity Ministry of Stories).

giant purple tentacles snaking out of the windows of leadenhall market
How this monster is on two sides of the building we do not know.

A series of guided 'Burials, Bombs and Fantastic Beasts' tours also set off from Leadenhall Market for spooky season every Wednesday (11, 18, 25 October, and 1 November 2023), exploring the more sinister side of the area.

Last Updated 02 October 2023

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