The Highgate arts centre’s popular annual spooky walk has been replaced this year with a petrifying panto on the tea lawn with five performers and a pianist

Ham & High: Spooky Walk at Lauderdale House 31.10.11. Pictured actor Luke Harrison as Count Dracula in one of the spooky scenarios staged around the grounds.Spooky Walk at Lauderdale House 31.10.11. Pictured actor Luke Harrison as Count Dracula in one of the spooky scenarios staged around the grounds. (Image: Archant)

Lauderdale House has reinvented its popular Halloween spooky walk to make it Covid-safe.

Scores of families usually enjoy the annual site specific performances, following a terrifying trail around the 440-year-old house and grounds.

But this year, the Highgate arts centre is holding their Halloween celebrations more than a week in advance in a socially distanced outdoor setting.

“The annual walk where groups are led around the house and park on a spooky quest has been going since 1999 and is a firm fixture in many family calendars,” said Lauderdale House director Katherine Ives.

“It’s fun and slightly off the wall, but this year it’s not possible to do it in the usual format and socially distance. We know how much joy it to brings to so many families and are aware that trick or treating is probably off the agenda and how little entertainment is available for children, so we have come up with an alternative.”

The Halloween theatre performances will take place on the tea lawn over three nights from October 21-23 with audiences sitting in socially distanced bubbles while five performers accompanied by a pianist take on multiple roles.

Written by Highgate director and performer Tim McArthur, the show combines a fairytale panto with Halloween witches, spiders and demons and is pitched at children aged 5 to 9.

Lauderdale House is bringing forward the witching hour to ensure that local children get some spooky fun in case of any half term ‘circuit-breaker’ lockdown.

Shows run at 5pm, 6pm and 7pm October 21-23.

Bookings lauderdalehouse.org.uk