Londres 38, Memorial site in downtown Santiago, Chile

Londres 38 is a narrow two-story house in downtown Santiago, at the address that gave it its name. Before the 1973 coup it served as a local headquarters of the Socialist Party of Chile; from September 1973 to late 1974 the DINA ran it as a clandestine detention and torture center under the code name Yucatán. Since 2008 it has belonged to the state and is open for guided talks.

The building operated as a secret interrogation center under the National Intelligence Directorate from 1973 to 1974. More than 1,000 political prisoners were held and questioned there during this period.

Prisoners gave the house its own names: the Palace of Laughter and the House of Bells, because they could hear the bells of the nearby San Francisco Church from inside. The site is now run as a memorial by the Colectivo Londres 38, which requested its designation as a Historic Monument in 2005 and organizes guided talks about the detention center.

Plan ahead to book a guided tour, as entry is by tour only and this ensures you get complete information about the site. Tours provide detailed accounts of what occurred and the building's layout.

Prisoners called the place the Palace of Laughter because they heard church bells from the nearby San Francisco Church during their confinement. The name reveals how people found small moments of hope amid terrible suffering.