Small change of plan this week. A technical issue took out the episode that was meant to be landing today, and rather than leave you with nothing, we're opening up one of our Patreon-only Sinister Stories instead.

So this one is a deviation from the usual. No case file, no victim, no court reports. Sinister Stories is our bonus strand for £10 and up patrons, where the only rule is that the story is strange, sinister or otherwise just bloomin interesting. It doesn't have to be true crime and it doesn't have to be South London, though on this occasion Rach has managed to keep it the right side of the river.

The subject is the Thames foot tunnels at Woolwich and Greenwich. How they were built, who fought for them and what they meant for workers south of the river, followed by the stranger stuff: the Woolwich time slip claims that surfaced during the 2010 refurbishment, the Victorian couple said to walk the Greenwich tunnel, and the infrasound and psychology that might explain a fair bit of it. Plus a detour through the Blackwall hitchhiker, Liverpool's Bold Street, the Edinburgh vaults and a lost street under Soho.

Normal service resumes next week.

Support the show

Thanks for tuning in! If you loved diving into the dark corners of South London with us, don't forget to hit that subscribe button to never miss an episode of "Sinister South."

Also, follow us on Instagram @SinisterSouthPodcast for sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and more cheeky banter, or www.sinistersouthpod.co.uk. Remember, every crime tells a story... and South is the best side of the river...

Produced and hosted by Hannah Williams & Rachel Baines
Mixed & edited by Purple Waves Sound (A.K.A Will)

This week Rach is dreaming of Devon (and still hasn't worked out what to do there beyond letting the kids run feral), Hannah's fun employed and doing her best to enjoy it before real life catches back up, and we somehow end up talking about McDonald's drink orders for far too long. Sorry, Trevors.

Tucked behind St Paul's Cathedral is Postman's Park, a small memorial garden with a wall of hand painted tiles, each one commemorating an ordinary person who died trying to save someone else's life. This week we look at how the wall came to exist, the Victorian painter George Frederick Watts who built it from newspaper cuttings, and why that method means the wall gets things wrong.

Then we cross the river to meet the seven South Londoners honoured there: a nursemaid who dropped three children from a burning window, a policeman killed searching an empty house, two boys who drowned holding onto each other, a woman who went back for her mother-in-law, a nine-year-old who died trying to save his baby brother, a surgeon who wrecked his own health saving a stranger abroad, and a 2007 rescue that became the first new tablet added to the wall in 78 years. We also ask whether a memorial like this should be a finished, unchangeable record, or something that keeps growing.

Support the show

Thanks for tuning in! If you loved diving into the dark corners of South London with us, don't forget to hit that subscribe button to never miss an episode of "Sinister South."

Also, follow us on Instagram @SinisterSouthPodcast for sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and more cheeky banter, or www.sinistersouthpod.co.uk. Remember, every crime tells a story... and South is the best side of the river...

Produced and hosted by Hannah Williams & Rachel Baines
Mixed & edited by Purple Waves Sound (A.K.A Will)