Thousands of people visiting the site of Fred and Rose West’s house in creepy craze where people flock to scenes of murders and disasters
THE home of serial killers Fred and Rose West was demolished two decades ago, after the bodies of nine young women were found buried beneath it.
But the site where it once stood, in Cronwell Street, Gloucester, has become a morbid tourist attraction - with thousands of people reportedly visiting the alleyway.
Experts have put it down to a rise in 'dark tourism', also known as grief or black tourism, which involves travelling to visit places associated with death and suffering.
Chris Lloyd, a documentary maker from Cardiff, was determined to find out more about what drives this desire.
In his quest, the 30-year-old has visited more than 30 dark tourist locations around the world, including Ground Zero, the former site of the Twin Towers in New York, and Aberfan, where the mining disaster happened in 1996.
"This is called rubberknecking. We all do it. There’s some strange curiosity in tragedy."
Fred and Rose West were a married couple who raped, tortured and murdered up to 12 victims. These women were later buried in the basement and garden of their house.
Among the people Chris spoke to was Gloucester resident Adrian Mitchell, who moved to the south-west city for work in 1998-99.
He told the cameras: "I really knew about Gloucester was the nursery rhyme of Doctor Foster stepping in a puddle and Fred West.
"The first thing I did was go out and buy a book on the subject, and get some background there.
"By the time I had moved here, the house had been demolished so there wasn’t anything actually to see.
"But just the curiosity of coming here and seeing where everything took place, and the fact that this was a normal street, and these were horrific crimes committed by someone who’s well known in the area, was just fascinating to me.
"I think obviously they knocked it down because it was such a big story, there was so much suffering and death there, and it going to attract interest and people who wanted to come and have a look, which they were trying to avoid.
"It’s a very residential area and if you’re a neighbour and you’re involved in any way or you were here at the time you’re probably sick to death of the interest."
Adrian doesn't see anything wrong with a bit of harmless curiosity, but added: "If you were doing a tour specifically to make money out of a murder site, if it was recent then I would be concerned about that."
In the documentary, a unnamed member of Chris' crew told the camera: "It’s odd to be here because I know this is such a famous place. And I’ve seen it in so many pictures and on the news.
"It’s kind of like being in a grave yard full of people I don’t know. I’ve got no connection to it really."
An academic centre, the Institute for Dark Tourism Research, or iDTR, opened its doors at the University of Central Lancashire in 2012.