Is the Gothic a thing of the past? Or does our contemporary culture haunt us the same way that the anxieties of the Victorian age bled out onto the pages of titles such as Frankenstein or Dracula? How do our worries about the future connect with those who lived through the Age of Reform?

You can join me tonight in the dark corners of Abney Park on a tour (book here, your money helps support the Trust to run cultural activities) as we take a journey back in time to the era of the Gothic novel. This splendid cemetery is one of my favourite places in Hackney but it’s not just a brilliant nature reserve – it’s also a repository of stories that tell of both Hackney’s radical past and also of London’s dramatic growth as a city.

See you in the shadows…