Speaking of which! Goths like the British seaside town of Whitby because it plays a role in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, the greatest vampire novel of all time.
In the book, the Demeter – the ship that transports Count Dracula’s coffin from Transylvania to England – runs aground on a beach in Whitby, where the Count then flees the corpse-filled vessel in the form of a wolf. Many scenes in the book take place in the churchyard of Whitby Abbey, where female protagonist Mina Murray sits and ponders a dark, menacing feeling approaching her (read: the lord of all vampires). The scenes on the Demeter and in Whitby are some of the most compelling in the book.
Whitby has since become a place of literary tourism for goths, who love it both for being one of the birthplaces of modern vampire lore and for being an old-school seaside town, which they adore for their overcast weather and general dreariness (no shade, Whitby, we love you with all our undead hearts).