‘Eerie’ Christmas market in UK's 'most haunted' prison where Fred West was held

18 November 2023 , 18:05

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An alternative market for Christmas shoppers will be held at Gloucester Prison on Saturday (Image: Googlemap)

Festive markets are usually a perfectly idyllic pre-Christmas trip, where visitors sink a mulled wine or two and the only frightening thing is the price of food and drink.

But there's a more macabre market being held this year - at a prison supposedly one of the UK's most haunted, whose former inmates including Fred West. Cells renowned for keeping serial killers secure are being turned into a shopping destination for the quirky free event this weekend.

Gloucester Prison will be the unusual setting for 80 alternative traders on Saturday and they could be in for a festive fright. Forget about buying Christmas decorations and some cute gifts for your gran, visitors should expect taxidermy of dead animals, gothic art and fantasy crafts along the jailhouse corridors where prison guards once roamed.

Fred West served time there - now his former cell now will have a different use (PA)

It will be far from a regular Christmas market seen across the world (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Crystal healers and new age masseurs will also be behind bars from 11am to 5pm. Adult content for over 18s is even being kept in separate cells, banged up away from children at the family-friendly shopping event. Food and drink will be far from prison grub although visitors will sit on authentic prison stools at a visitors table in a specially created social space.

The festive shopping event is being advertised as: "Gloucester Prison Alternative Market showcasing quality non-conformist traders in a unique prison venue." HMP Gloucester opened in 1791 but closed in 2013, during which time 123 people were executed within its walls. Serial killer West was an inmate while held on remand in the jail, built on the site of a medieval castle.

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Julie Farr, a University of Gloucestershire lecturer has organised the event and said it would be an "eerie, sensory experience". Gloucester Prison website highlights its ghostly fame along with noting how the building is used as a filming location for TV shows. They have ranged from BBC's Silent Witness to ITV series The Pembrokeshire Murders starring Luke Evans and Keith Allen about Welsh serial killer John Cooper.

It says: "HMP Gloucester is regarded as one of, if not, the most haunted prisons in the UK." Among some of the spookiest areas focused on in its ghost hunts are the prison wings and cells, its kitchens and original Gate House dating back to the 1790s." Gloucester Prison alternative market will take place in the prison in Barrack Square, Gloucester. Use postcode GL1 2JN if you want to find it.

Alison Brinkworth