A 13-year-old's free horror walk-through opens at 28 and 30 Queens Road, Rayleigh, on 30 and 31 October, 6.30pm to 8.30pm, raising £3,000 for Little Havens.
A 13-year-old in Rayleigh has turned two houses into a horror walk-through for Halloween, and it opens on Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October, 6.30pm to 8.30pm both nights, at 28 and 30 Queens Road, SS6 8JX. Going through costs nothing. Dexter, who has run Dexter’s Halloween for four or five years, asks visitors to give what they can to Little Havens Children’s Hospice, and this year his target is £3,000.
Rayleigh is about six miles north-west of Southend town centre, in Rochford district.
His father, Mike Gallop, wrote to us about it this week. “Dexter has been doing this for the last four or five years and is completely obsessed with Halloween,” he said. “He spends pretty much all of his birthday money, Christmas money and savings on animatronics, props and equipment so he can make the event bigger each year and raise more money.”
“It started with decorating our house. This year it has escalated somewhat.”
Scaffolding, smoke and a gargoyle over the door
“We now have two houses involved, scaffolding surrounding the walkthrough, dozens of animatronics, lighting, smoke effects and a giant illuminated gargoyle sitting on a platform above the entrance,” Mr Gallop said.
The second house belongs to the neighbours. The family’s JustGiving page says they are “almost doubling the size of the walkthrough” and that “our neighbours are getting involved too, allowing us to extend the experience into the house next door”.
The scaffolding was donated. The sponsors page on the event website says TG Scaffolding, a Wickford firm, “has generously donated all of the scaffolding for this year’s event, which will remain around the properties for approximately five weeks while we build, decorate and prepare the Halloween walkthrough”. A build diary on the site shows the first phase going up on 3 October, and the gargoyle lit and wired on 4 October.
The gargoyle is the centrepiece. The website’s animatronics page lists it at 7.3ft, “with glowing red eyes and claws the size of dinner plates”, and says it has “already scared the neighbours’ kids”. It shares the route with a 7.5ft red dragon, a 7.5ft plague doctor, a howling wolf, a skeleton in a barrel and a cast of clowns. One jumping spider, the page notes, cost £13.
Some of this year’s figures came free. Mad About Horror, a Halloween specialist, has donated a bundle of animatronics, and a video on the site shows Dexter opening one of them.
Why the hospice
Little Havens, which the event website places in Benfleet, cares for babies, children and young people with life-limiting conditions, and their families. The family’s JustGiving page says “all of that care is provided free of charge”.
“Dexter and our family visited Little Havens, met the CEO and team and saw the care and facilities they provide for children and their families,” Mr Gallop said. “It had a huge impact on him and fundraising for the hospice has become the reason behind everything he does with the event.”
The family pay for the build themselves so that the donations go to the hospice. “We put a huge amount of time, effort and our own money into building the Halloween walkthrough because we want every penny donated to go directly to Little Havens,” the JustGiving page says. “There is no charge to come through the walkthrough. Instead, we’re asking everyone who comes along, enjoys it and gets suitably terrified to make a donation if they can.”
£1,700 last year, £3,000 this year
Last year’s event raised over £1,700, Mr Gallop said. When we checked the JustGiving page on 7 October 2026 it stood at £320 from six donations, against the £3,000 target.
There are two other ways to give. Go Privilege, a Rayleigh hospitality and ticketing firm, has donated two Club Level tickets for England v Croatia at Wembley on Thursday 12 November 2026, and they are the prize in a raffle at £5 a ticket (peoplesfundraising.com/raffle/dextershalloween). On the nights, Dexter’s Halloween caps (£8), drawstring bags (£5) and glow wristbands (£2) are on sale at the gate, cash only, with the money going to Little Havens, according to the website.
Dexter was nominated for Rayleigh Citizen of the Year in 2025 for his fundraising. The event website says he did not win, but received a Certificate of Recognition in the Young Citizen category, and that “being invited on stage and receiving his certificate was a huge moment for him”.
When and where
- Dates: Friday 30 October and Saturday 31 October 2026
- Times: 6.30pm to 8.30pm both nights
- Address: 28 and 30 Queens Road, Rayleigh SS6 8JX
- Cost: free to go through; donations to Little Havens on JustGiving
- Updates: the build diary at dextershalloween.co.uk
What it means for you
It is a front-garden walk-through on a residential street, so plan to walk or park considerately nearby; the website gives no parking arrangements. On 31 October it overlaps with Southend’s own Halloween parade, which starts at 6pm, so choose one or go to Rayleigh on the Friday. For everything else on in the area this month, see What’s On in Southend.
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