Urban legends give people a way to focus and personify the anxieties that come from living in a modern city. It also creates a sense of community when sharing these tales.

Modern urban legends mix the normal and the supernatural, changing how we view our surroundings.

People in 19th-century Britain used folk tales to adjust to the experience of city living. Folklore was continually updated. It expressed concerns about urban development, the threat of strangers, and a shrinking sense of community as people no longer knew one another.

In Victorian Lond...

• Iris folkloric monsters such as the banshee are still spreading in modern urban living. These stories act as a warning to help police the boundaries between safe and unsafe areas.
• In 21st-century Beijing, the city's night bus has become the focus of frightening stories about encounte...