A VHS copy of the horror film Hellraiser keeps appearing on a bus stop on London’s Old Kent Road, a mystery that has run since 2011. Even replacing the shelter didn’t end it. In July 2021, local observer Andrew Humphrey said a taller bus shelter had gone up and a VHS copy of the film appeared on top within about a week.
The tapes had already been turning up there for a decade. Kim Noble posted a photograph of a copy on 17 October 2011.
By January 2013, riders were reporting a second tape beside the weathered original. That April, Tom Wateracre reported that both had disappeared, only for a fresh copy to arrive.
The film is Clive Barker’s 1987 Hellraiser, with Pinhead on the VHS cover. Humphrey said he’d seen between 1 and 9 copies at the stop, with stretches when they disappeared before returning.
An anonymous artist eventually offered part of an explanation. After noticing the original from the top deck of the number 21 bus on their commute, they began adding copies themselves. They said their first deliberate placement was beside the original on 21 December 2012.
Their plan, called 21 on the 21, was to put out 21 tapes over time along the route. But they denied placing the original: “I don’t know how or why that first Hellraiser appeared.”
The artist described watching its cover deteriorate until it “seemed nearly alive.” They asked people to leave the tapes alone because “They’ve still got a job to do.”
Reports continued long after that explanation. An August 2024 video described 4 Hellraiser films, from the original through Bloodline, together at the stop in May that year. On 7 March 2026, riders in a London Reddit thread reported a Hellraiser tape still at the East Street stop on Old Kent Road, before Lidl.
