An Interview with James Kislingbury

By Emma Artz

Hello and welcome to Em’s world!

Today I am talking to an incredibly warm-hearted and interesting man, Mr James Kislingbury. He has a wealth of historical knowledge, has literally brushed shoulders with a host of stars. He has been the Managing Director at the London Bridge Experience since 2008 and in recent years also became the Managing Director of an amazing ice cream parlour named London Bridge Desserts.

Hello James and welcome!

How has lockdown been treating you and your family?

It has been a mad few months, if anyone had told me two months ago that we would find ourselves in this situation, I wouldn’t have believed them. It is such a surreal time. Back in February, I was in Arizona filming for a US show called ‘Ghost Adventures’. I came back and suddenly all hell breaks loose literally.

I work as the Director at the London Bridge Experience and in March we had to close our doors and we still don’t know when we are going to be able to open up again, and if we will be able to meet our overheads when we do! Tourism is one of the industries to be hit the hardest. Will people feel safe to travel to London, even when things are open again? 

I also work as the Director for London Bridge Desserts which has been able to keep going through delivery companies, we have delivered literally thousands of waffles to the NHS staff at discounted prices to try and help them along and thank them for the great work they have been doing.  I have been working from home in a log cabin at the bottom of the garden during my time in isolation. The cabin is great because I have my own domain where I can still work, but at the same time, I’m able to keep my family safe by staying home. My wife is at risk because she suffers from asthma and I also have two young children Thomas who is five and Emily who is one.

Emily has learned to walk in the last two months and now she is running around like ‘Linford Christie’. Thomas, my five-year-old, is lovely, he is such a good big brother, he will take her to a locked cupboard find the key and ask her if she wants to go in. The next thing my wife and I will hear is an almighty crash and we will look at one another and say, “There goes another plate”. Thomas has been back at school for the past couple of weeks and he’s really thriving and enjoying himself with the limits on class sizes and ‘bubble groups’ of five children to two teachers. With Thomas back at school, we have to keep an even closer eye on Emily who is prone to climbing the stairs completely independently and going into his room and emptying all his toys on the floor!

They are both such great ages but I can imagine that you and your wife have certainly had your hands full!

You mentioned before that in February you were in Arizona filming for a US TV series. That sounds intriguing, can you tell me and our readers how that came about? 

That was a crazy situation. I was at work at the London Bridge Attraction one Friday afternoon in February when the phone rang and someone wanted to chat to me about the history of London Bridge. The guy said he was from a US show called ‘Ghost Adventures’ which I had never heard of, and asked me if I was happy to answer a few questions. We talked about doing the interview via ‘Zoom’ which back in February was still relatively unknown. So I agreed to the interview and got on with my work. Then a couple of hours later I got another call and this time they asked me if I was close to Heathrow Airport. They went on to say that they wanted to fly me out to Arizona to do the interview! So on the Monday I flew into Phoenix and was taken by car to Lake Havasu Arizona. It was bizarre we were driving for hours and literally the only thing we saw was cactus after cactus.

The reason they wanted me there is because at Lake Havasu they have one of the old London Bridges. The story goes that a gentleman called Robert Paxton McCulloch purchased what he thought was London Bridge and had it shipped all the way to Lake Havasu. Once there he then realised it was the wrong bridge. However, from the research, I did while in Arizona, there is actually quite a lot of evidence that he clearly knew which bridge he was buying. He decided to buy it as part of a very clever business plan to increase the value of his land, which he did considerably. He invested 3 million dollars in the bridge including shipping it over there, but as a result, he was able to raise the value of his land to 20 million dollars. So, now literally in the middle of the Arizona Desert at Lake Havasu, there is an old London Bridge! Although work commitments only allowed me to stay three nights it was a great experience. I was kind of the crazy London bridge celebrity who was hosted and taken out to dinner by the former State Governor Linda Binder. It was an amazing time, a real eye-opener.

That sounds like a great adventure!

Back to your London Bridge Attraction can you tell the readers a bit about the experience?

There are two parts of the show, first the London Bridge Experience which is a historical show focusing on the dark history of the bridge. This includes the Keeper of the Heads, the guy who put the heads of people who had been found guilty of treason on spikes. We also teach people about the Roman period, Boudica, and the sacking of London. This part is really a cross between ‘Black Adder’ humour and ‘Horrible Histories’.

The second part is the Scare Show in the Tombs where you can expect to meet dentists, doctors, zombies….all kinds of creatures of the night that live down there. I employ actors who jump out and scare you wielding chainsaws, all sorts of mad stuff.

The two attractions combine together to make a unique experience a combination of history and horror.

I have heard that you have unearthed many interesting items at the London Tombs. Would you like to share with us some information about the incredible things you have on display?

Yes, we definitely do! I joined the team towards the end of the building phase in February 2008 and one of my first memories was walking through what was essentially a building site and seeing a huge pile of plastic storage boxes full of bones. We asked MOLAS (Museum of London Archaeological Services) to do some research on them and many dated back to the 11th Century. Some skulls had holes at the top which we presumed may have been displayed on spikes on the wall.  Others showed no damage at all and research found that they may have been victims of the black death, this is because the disease was so fast-acting that it left no trace on the skeletal structure. All the bones that we found have now been reinterred at Southwark Cathedral a stone’s throw away from the bridge. However, it is believed that there are still thousands of skeletons that remain under the ground at the site. You can read more about this at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7072188.stm

We also found a letter in a locked box while we were doing some construction on the site, at first we didn’t think much of it as other objects in the box were really of no historical value. On further investigation, I found that the letter was signed by Dr. William Gull. This piqued my interest and I decided to investigate further. It turned out that Dr. William Gull was the private physician for Prince Albert who was known for being quite a ladies man. Dr. Gull was said to have helped the Prince resolve issues that arose due to his indiscretions and in turn, the Prince turned a blind eye to some of Gull’s more sinister activities such as incarcerating women in mental asylums. It turns out that Sir William Gull was also a suspect in the ‘Jack the Ripper’ murders and he would fit the profile, as the serial killer was well known for removing organs from the bodies and therefore must have had some form of medical knowledge. He wasn’t the only suspect and I’m not saying he definitely was ‘Jack the Ripper’ as many other people had stronger evidence against them, but it’s an interesting piece and we have it on display at the museum.

That sounds fascinating, now with all the old bones and mysteries you have uncovered it sounds like a really spooky place, can you tell me if you have you ever experienced any paranormal activity at the site?

Twenty years ago if you had asked me about ghosts I would have laughed.  I became a bit of a believer at my old place of work ‘The Clink’ Crime and Punishment Museum. While I was there I started working with a few paranormal groups and things happened that I just couldn’t explain.

When I started working at the London Bridge experience there was certainly a very funny feeling about the building and I often found myself getting a chill up the back of my spine and the hairs on my arms standing up, that sort of thing and others have felt it too. In the Tombs, we have a couple of characters that tend to make an appearance fairly regularly such as ‘Shadow Man’,  who we suspect may have been a bouncer who was murdered in a nightclub that used to be above the site. We came up with this theory after a police officer came to investigate the site while looking into a cold case. We think this may be him because of his strong stocky frame. It is always impossible to make out his features but he often appears as a shadow out of the corner of your eye and that is why the staff have nicknamed him ‘Shadow Man’. Once a group of 12 to 15 people witnessed a girl dressed in white in a room called the ‘Spider Room’, they presumed she was part of the show but when they asked me about her and I checked to see who was working that day and found out that we didn’t have any female staff members actually working at that time and we did not have a white dress that fitted the description in wardrobe! Since that time people have often seen a young girl around the place and I wonder if it is her – members of staff have named her Emily. When I first started working there I definitely had a few scares but funnily enough you kind of get used to it!

I understand that you have had the pleasure of meeting many famous people.  Is there anyone who you have met that really stands out for you?

One of the nicest people that I have met in my time was Rik Mayall, sadly he isn’t with us anymore. I did a programme with Rik for the Discovery channel about torture, crime, and punishment as I was involved with the ‘Clink Prison Museum’ at the time. I turned up at the set ready to get some publicity for the museum, wearing my white staff T-shirt with the museum logo on it. When we were about to start filming the director told me that I could not wear my T-shirt because it was white and would be too bright on camera. I was mortified as the T-shirt was the only thing that I had with our logo on it and I was keen to promote the museum.  Anyway, Rik happened to overhear the discussion between me and the director and interjected, “He’s going to wear his T-shirt” to which the director replied “no he can’t” Rik then turned to him, looked him in the eye and said “well you can eat my shorts’, then stormed offset. The director gave in at that point and I was allowed to wear my T-shirt. It was just a really lovely moment, Rik was just a really nice guy and very similar to his character in ‘Bottom’ in real life. At the time my wife was a huge fan of the film ‘Drop Dead Fred’ which Rik starred in and she had printed out a picture from the movie and asked me if I could get him to sign it. Instead of just signing the letter he wrote a letter to my wife in the character of Fred praising her jiggly bits and so on. It was quite wonderful and my wife still treasures that letter.

Another famous character that really stands out is Dieter Laser, who starred as the doctor in the film ‘The Human Centipede’, we invited him to join us from Germany when we screened ‘The Human Centipede 2’ at our attraction. He was an award-winning actor in Germany and was well known for his method acting. It was said that he scared quite a few of his fellow actors while filming as he remained in character at all times during the shooting of the film. Dieter Laser was just a really nice and humble guy and I recently found another letter that had been written to my wife inviting us both to visit him in Germany. Sadly he is also no longer with us as he died in February this year.

I’ve been really lucky to have met so many lovely people including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Paul Gascoine, Johnathon Ross, The Arab Royal family, a host of sports stars and people from Britain’s Got Talent and the X-Factor. My work creates a great opportunity to meet these people and have a bit of fun with them.

I understand that you recreated some scenes from that movie in your ‘Halloween Special’ that year, and had to purchase some quite unusual items for the displays would you like to share that story with our readers?

Dieter Laser’s character in the ‘Human Centipede’ was named Dr. Josef Heiter and one of his signature things was a riding crop, so I had to source a number of riding crops for our displays. Another thing that I had to purchase was a large amount of ‘Vaseline’ as we use that on our mannequins to make the blood look glossy and authentic. So, I leave work and go to ‘Tescos’ to buy the Vaseline and as luck would have it and they are having a massive sale on riding equipment of all things! I thought this is brilliant, amazing, perfect! I was able to get several ‘Tescos Value Riding Crops’ for a really good deal!  I was at the checkout with all these riding crops and a whole lot of Vaseline and this lady at the checkout she was serving me ‘bless her soul’, she was the age of my mother….she looked at me, looked at what was going through the till and she winked at me and asked me if I was going to have a good night! I didn’t know what to say….that was a magical weird, funny moment.

Finally, is there anything you would like to share with the Lengro readers today?

The one thing that I would like to say to everyone with the whole COVID situation and everything that is happening is that the community needs to come together to help and support each other. At the moment some of us are getting help from the government but eventually, that will stop and we will come out of little holes in the ground and we will have to actually start rebuilding society. Nobody knows what is going to happen around the corner. The big boys can shout louder than us but they don’t have big hearts like we do! So, once things ease please support small businesses. Come and visit us at ‘London Bridge’ come and say “Hello” and don’t be a stranger.

Thank you so much for talking to me this evening James, it has been an absolute pleasure meeting you and I will definitely be visiting you the next time I am over in the UK.

Save the Arts

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”

– Thomas Merton

Loading...