Kerry Andrew/You are Wolf at South East London Folklore Society

A real treat coming up at South East London Folklore Society on 13th September:

Old Ways, New Ways: using folklore and song in contemporary music and literature

Kerry Andrew is an award-winning composer, performer and writer who frequently draws on traditional folk song and stories in her work, whether it be opera, contemporary folk music or fiction. Under her folk guise, You Are Wolf, she has released two albums, inspired by birds and folklore (Hawk to the Hunting Gone) and freshwater folklore (Keld).

She won one of her four British Composer Awards for her community chamber opera, Woodwose, which drew on traditional lullabies from around the world and the wild man of the woods figure. In 2016, she was a British Council/PRSF Musician in Residence in China, making new work inspired by the European and Chinese folklore around foxes. Her debut novel, Swansong (published by Jonathan Cape this year to excellent press), is a loose reworking of the Irish/Scots folk song Molly Bawn.

 

In this talk, Kerry will talk about her sources of inspiration, from swans to waterfall banshees, wodwos to foxes. She will read from her novel and sing some songs!

This talk is held in the upstairs room of The Old King's Head in Borough & costs £5/1.50 concs. Bring some extra money to buy Kerry's book or a copy of one of her excellent albums!

Thursday, September 13 at 8 PM at The Old King's Head, Kings Head Yard, SE1 1NA (off Borough High StreetYou can book in advance by emailing cunningfolkmusic@gmail.com or roll up on the night

I've been listening all summer to the great Keld album. The name comes from a Northern English word meaning “the deep, still, smooth part of a river”  and all the tracks have some kind of freshwater theme.

And Did Those Hooves in Ancient Times

An interesting talk coming up at South East London Folklore Society this week - Thursday 10th August 2017 - looking at all kinds of magickal and folkloric aspects of the goat. No less than 'a journey through goatish manifestations by way of Snowdonia, Avebury and Crouch End: Alexander Keiller's Pan worship, daimonic encounters, haunted abandoned rail lines, and cough syrup hallucinations'.

The speaker is the erudite and quietly influential Gyrus, 'a writer based in south London, obsessed with animism, altered states, depth psychology and archaic revivals. Creator of the journals Towards 2012 and Dreamflesh, and author of North, an epic cosmological history.'

The talk takes place in the upstairs room of The Old King's Head, just down the road from London Bridge, across which Cilla Black and Cherie Blair walked goats for charity not so long ago. Also only five minutes away from Queen Elizabeth Street SE1 where in July 1944, a Nazi rocket destroyed The Goat Public House, killing 18 people. I am sure there must be lots of other local goat connections... any ideas?

Entrance is £3/1.50 concs, in King's Head Yard, 45-49 Borough High Street, SE1 1NA (facebook event details here)

Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks dressed up for the Pagan goat dance in Dragnet (1987)

Lucifer Over Lancashire - the Pendle Witch Trials

This Thursday night (March 9th 2017), South East London Folklore Society will be examining The Pendle Witch Trials of 1612 - some of the best recorded and famous witch trials of the 17th century.

SELFS host Nigel Hoyle has a rather fine folk music project, The Cunning Folk, and they have written a song about the Pendle trials entitled Lancashire, God's Country.  So I wouldn't be surprized to hear a tune or two on Thursday.

SELFS meets in the upstairs room of The Old King's Head off Borough High Street SE1, from 8 pm. £3/1.50 concs -walk-ups are very welcome however you may wish to email cunningfolkmusic@gmail.com to book a place.

All of which reminds me that the very first post on Transpontine, back in October 2004, was for a SELFS talk (then at the Spanish Galleon in Greenwich), with Kathleen Blackmore talking about one of the last witch trials in England. In 1701 Sarah Morduck was accused of causing a neighbour's illness at Bankside (near the site of the Tate Modern). Even though she was found not guilty, she was beaten up and left for dead.



Oh and happy 60th birthday to Mr Lucifer Over Lancashire himself

Wicca talk at Old Kings Head SE1,

Tomorrow night (Thursday 14 July) at the always interesting South East London Folklore Society, at the Old Kings Head off Borough High Street SE1, a talk on contemporary Wicca:

'The past century has borne witness to a growing interest in the belief systems of ancient Europe, with an array of contemporary Pagan groups claiming to revive these old ways for the needs of the modern world. By far the largest and best known of these Paganisms has been Wicca, a new religious movement that can now count hundreds of thousands of adherents worldwide. In this talk, Ethan Doyle White will provide a historical outline of this faith, in doing so examining its beliefs, practices, and the community of practitioners that has developed around it.

Ethan Doyle White is a PhD researcher at University College London (UCL) and is the author of Wicca: History, Belief, and Community in Modern Pagan Witchcraft (Sussex Academic Press, 2016) as well as various other publications on the subjects of modern Paganism and related forms of occultism, and the religious beliefs and practices of early medieval England.

The talk is in the upstairs room of The Old King's Head & commences at 8pm. £3/1.50 concs. email georgehoylefolkmusic@gmail.com to book a place or chance your arm & roll up on the night'

Doreen Valiente (1922-1999 ), one of the founders of modern witchcraft pictured in 1962. She was born at 1 High Street, Colliers Wood.

David Bowie's Lambeth Murder Ballad

Tonight at at South East London Folklore Society, Paul Slade (author of 'Unprepared to Die') will be giving a talk on murder ballads

'Cheerfully vulgar and revelling in gore, murder ballads are tabloid newspapers set to music, carrying word of the latest 'orrible murders to an insatiable public. Victims are bludgeoned, stabbed or shot in every verse and killers often hanged, but the songs themselves never die. Instead, they mutate – morphing to suit local place names as they criss cross the Atlantic (often beginning life in Britain) and continue to fascinate each generation’s biggest musical stars. Journalist Paul Slade traces this fascinating genre’s history via its greatest songs Slade investigates real-life murders which inspired well-known ballads and uncovers many startling new facts about them. There will be performances of the songs by George Hoyle & renowned folk musician, Dave Arthur'

(8 pm at the Old Kings Head, off Borough High Street SE1 - further details at facebook)

I wonder whether the recently departed David Bowie will get a mention for his 1967 contribution to the genre?  Please Mr. Gravedigger is from his early career, a time of whimsical songs and novelty tunes. The track features just Bowie's voice to a background of sound effects - church bells, bird song, weather, digging. The charming child killer's lament is said in a bombed out churchyard in Lambeth. Not sure if Bowie had anywhere specific in mind.

There's a little churchyard just along the way

It used to be Lambeth's finest array

Of tombstones, epitaphs, wreaths, flowers all that jazz

Til the war come along and someone dropped a bomb on the lot

And in this little yard, there's a little old man

With a little shovel in his little bitty hand

He seems to spend all his days puffing fags and digging graves

He hates the reverend vicar and he lives all alone in his home

"Ah-choo, excuse me"

Please Mr. Gravedigger, don't feel ashamed

As you dig little holes for the dead and the maimed

Please Mr. Gravedigger, I couldn't care

If you found a golden locket full of some girl's hair

And you put it in your pocket

"God, it's pouring down"

Her mother doesn't know about your sentimental joy

She thinks it's down below with the rest of her toys

And Ma wouldn't understand, so I won't tell

So keep your golden locket all safely hid away in your pocket

Yes, Mr. GD, you see me every day

Standing in the same spot by a certain grave

Mary-Ann was only 10 and full of life and oh so gay

And I was the wicked man who took her life away

Very selfish, oh God

No, Mr. GD, you won't tell

And just to make sure that you keep it to yourself

I've started digging holes my friend

And this one here's for you...

The Tarot Tour of London

The Wheel of Fortune card from the Rider Waite Tarot Deck -
co-designed by A.E.Waite who has an interesting connection with the Horniman Museum

Coming up next week (Thursday October 8th) at South East London Folklore Society:

'The Tarot Tour of London uses 22 of the major historical sites as the basis of the tour as they correspond with the major Arcana. There are obvious ones like the Wheel of Fortune being represented by the London Eye and the Tower card by the Tower of London. Others are not so easy to presume as it is their history, myth, legend and folklore that makes them complement the meaning of a card.

Geraldine Beskin of The Atlantis Bookshop is a Londoner and occultist and is delighted to combine the two as she presents the capital from a fresh, new angle.

The talk will start at 8pm in the upstairs room of the Old King’s Head, off Borough High Street SE1. Entrance is £3/1.50 concs.

To avoid disappointment in event of a full house you can email nigelofbermondsey@gmail.com to book in advance'

Yeats in London

We are coming up to the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Irish poet W.B. Yeats - he was born in Sandymount, County Dublin on 13 June 1865.

Yeats spents some very formative years in London, and next month at South East London Folklore Societu. Yeats authority Niall McDevitt will be giving a talk on 'Yeats in London'.

As mentioned at Transpontine before, there's an interesting connection between W.B. Yeats and the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill. He also visited Madame Blavatsky in Norwood, and spoke at Southwark Irish Literary Club. Hopefully there will be some more South London connections

Wednesday, May 13th 8:00pm, The Old King's Head, The Kings Yard, 45 Borough High Street, SE1 1NA

Talk starts at 8pm. £3/1.50 concession

To be sure of a place you can email nigelofbermondsey@gmail.com to book

(facebook event details)

Vanished City: London's Lost Neighbourhoods

Coming up at South East London Folklore Society next month, a talk by writer Thomas Bolton - 'Vanished City: London's Lost Neighbourhoods':

'London is in a state of constant transformation, layer upon layer built up over centuries of destruction and reconstruction. There is so much change all around us that we scarcely notice it, but among the areas now vanished and forgotten are some of the city’s most famous, and infamous, neighbourhoods.

These include the most feared neighbourhood in the Western world, London’s first Olympic Park, its first port, the original Grub Street, a high society spa resort, an occult square, a landscape of ancient, mythical kings, a notorious slum, and the streets stalked by the first London serial killer. Through these streets crowd the Earl of Essex, Christopher Marlowe, Charles Dickens, Alexander Pope, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Aleister Crowley, Greta Garbo, Fu Manchu, the Ancients of Norton Folgate and the possessors of 8,000 unidentified corpses'.

Tom Bolton is the author of London's Lost Rivers, A Walker's Guide (2011).

The talk is on Thursday, February 12 at 8:00pm upstairs in the Old King’s Head Pub, The King’s Yard, 45 Borough High Street SE1 1NA.  Entrance is £3/1.50 concs. To avoid disappointment you can email nigelofbermondsey@gmail.com to book in advance.

(facebook details here)

Transpontine Ten Years Later

Can't quite believe that this blog is ten years old. The first posts were on 9 October 2004, covering a talk on witch trials at South East London Folklore Society, a gig by our then favourite local band The Swear at the Montague Arms, and another gig by The Fucks at Goldsmiths . The blog really grew out of a period of being involved to a greater or lesser extent in some interesting but disconnected scenes locally - South East London Folklore Society itself (then meeting at the Spanish Galleon pub in Greenwich), the South London Radical History Group and other stuff at the Use Your Loaf social centre in Deptford (evicted in September 2004) and the New Cross music scene centred around Angular Records and the Paradise Bar (now the Royal Albert).

Now would probably be a good time to stop, I'm not particularly feeling 'the local' at the moment, and blogs have partly been superseded by other social media platforms. But sure I would regret having somewhere to post things that do interest me, or to let people know about some good and bad stuff going on. And if nothing else the last ten years of Transpontine do serve as an archive of a decade in the life of  South East London.

In the early days, Blogger wasn't very photo friendly so there weren't many pictures on early Transpontine. To redress this here's some New Cross-related  images from 2004 I found on flickr.

Art Brut getting ready for a photo shoot by the Paradise Bar in July 2004
(photo by Adie Nunn from flickr)

A 36 routemaster bus to New Cross Gate
(photo taken at Victoria by Bingley Hall on flickr)

Fear of Music flyer for a night at Montague Arms

Footsteps in the snow by Goldsmiths, January 2004
(by Li-Chuan Chong on flickr)

Tales from the Riverbank with London Dreamtime + Irish tales at South East London Folklore Society

Really enjoyed 'Faeries of the Minesweeper' on 22 August from London Dreamtime. A tale of the fairies in a mill at Deptford Creek from Vanessa Woolf was interspersed with songs from Nigel of Bermondsey; costumes and settings were designed by Lucy Williams. Starting out by St Pauls Church we wound our way to a railway arch by Crossfields Estate and then across the Creek to finish up on the Minesweeper Boat.

Vanessa and Nigel on the Minesweeper, sadly didn't manage to get a good picture of them
with the many twilight ducks flying over.

They are back in action on another boat on Sunday 21 September (3:30 pm - 5:00 pm) with 'A Trip down the Thames in Story and Song' on HMS President, the 1918 ship redecorated as Dazzle Ship London by  artist Tobias Rehberger.The event is sponsored by the Londonist and is part of this months's Totally Thames season of events on and around the river. HMS President is moored at  Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0HJ.

Nigel is also busy next Thursday 11 September (8 pm) - hosting South East London Folklore Society at the Old Kings Head in Borough High Street. Guest this time is Thomas McCarthy, the Irish Traveller, Folk Singer & Storyteller. He has a repertoire of over 200 traditional songs that he sings unaccompanied. He also has an extensive story repertoire from which he shall be drawing from at SELFS. Expect to meet fairies, hunchbacks, banshees, druids, Finn McCool and Cuchulain (Facebook event details)  I've caught Tom singing a few times, including at Kit & Cutter, and he's a great talent.

Thomas McCarthy

London's Myths & Legends at South East London Folklore Society

Coming up at South East London Folklore Society on Thursday 10th April:

Robert Stephenson: London's Myths & Legends.

In legend London was inaugurated by the fabled Trojan leader Brutus with the construction of a temple dedicated to Diana on the spot now occupied by St Paul's Cathedral. Hear about the city’s legends and founding myths, and their locations.

Robert Stephenson is an expert on London, he is giving a series of fascinating talks at the Guildhall Library on London history and myth. He is a qualified City of London guide and a tour leader at Kensal Green and Brompton cemeteries. He has taught on London for twenty years

Talk starts at 8pm in the upstairs room of The Old King's Head, 45 Borough High Street, SE1 1NA
£2.50/£1.50 concessions

email nigelofbermondsey@gmail to book a place

Incidentally, the interesting Ruin Lust exhibition currently on at Tate Britain includes a photo by Henry Dixon from the 1880s of King's Head Yard, where the current pub now sits off Borough High Street.

King's Head Inn Yard c.1881, photographed by Henry Dixon

London Urban Legends Talk

Transpontine co-founder Scott Wood put blogging on hold a few years ago to spend his time writing an actual book, among other things. The result is 'London Urban Legends: The Corpse on the Tube and Other Stories', published recently by the History Press.

On Thursday January 9th 2014, Scott will be giving a talk on the subject of the book at South East London Folklore Society:

'London's Legendary Landscape: London's statues and stones have stories stuck to them along with the chewing gum and pigeon poo. Tonight Scott Wood tells tales and dissects legends of the walking statue of Brandy Nan, insulting sculptures, sculptors driven to suicide by a mistake, Hitler’s office for when he ruled London and as much more as he can squeeze in about London’s legendary landscape. Urban legends may not be true but they tell do truths about out what people think and feel about the landscape and landmarks around them.  Scott is the author of London Urban Legends: The Corpse on the Tube, the author of the Fortean London column for Londonist co-organiser and host of the London Fortean Society and ran South East London Folklore Society for eight noisy and chaotic years'.

8pm at The Old King's Head, King's Head Yard, 45-49 Borough High Street, London SE1 1NA.Entry is £2.50/ £1.50 concessions. You can book a place to guarantee a seat. Email nigelofbermondsey@gmail.com to book (facebook event details here).

Gemini City: stories and songs from Nigel of Bermondsey

Tonight (Thursday) at South East London Folklore Society:

London: Gemini City: Stories and songs from Nigel Of Bermondsey

Join Nigel Of Bermondsey on a musical journey through the streets of this fair capital. You may meet a ghost or two, cross the occasional underground river or encounter a cursed ironclad. There may be scenes of mild terror and the possibility of a duel. Have a drink ready to join in a toast to one of this fine city’s forgotten mystic artists.

8 pm at the Old Kings Head, King's Head Yard, 45-49 Borough High Street, London SE1. £2.50, £1.50 concessions

Nigel, who once played with Gay Dad and also makes dance music as part of Cage & Aviary, is a 'site-specific troubador' who has produced a finely crafted body of song about London, South London in particular.

Nigel of Bermondsey from Superimpose Magazine on Vimeo.

The Jews of Hatcham 1272 - and some later Jewish folklore

A significant community of Jews established itself in England in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest, and faced considerable prejudice. In 1190, over a hundred Jewish people were massacred in York. In 1219 a law was passed requiring Jews to wear identifying badges. And in 1290, King Edward I issued an edict expelling Jews from the country. Prior to this, they faced punitive taxes - as Christians were formally banned from lending money with interest, Jews tended to fill the role of moneylenders, so were seen as a source of income by the King. From the 1190s and 1290 there was a special office of Exchequer of the Jews which regulated the taxes and financial transactions of Jewish communities.   One effect of the latter was that detailed records were kept of Jews in England which are a goldmine for later historians. Many of these were republished in 1902 in a volume  edited by J.M. Rigg and published by the Selden Society and the Jewish Historical Society of England as 'Select pleas, starrs, and other records from the Rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews, A. D. 1220-1284'.  

This includes a record from 1272 which attests to the presence of a group of Jews in New Cross Gate, or as it was then known Hatcham:   'In the same way and on the same account the Sheriff of Surrey  and Sussex was commanded, that he cause to be levied upon the Jews of Guildford 3s., upon the Jews of Chichester 3s., upon the Jews of Arundel 3s., upon the Jews of Lewes 2s., upon the Jews of Seaford  2s., and upon the Jews of Hatcham 2s. ; so that he have those moneys before etc. on the said day, to be delivered to the said Henry. And the Sheriff sent word, that the community of the Jews paid Robert Tayllard, late Constable of Guildford, 3s., to the use of the said Henry, and the said Robert is removed from his bailiwick, and has nought in goods, and is not found in the country; and that the Jews of Chichester belong to the Liberty of Edmund, son of the King of Germany, whose bailiffs had the return, and did nought in execution thereof. And the Jews of Arundel and Lewes have nought except some empty houses, and are not found in his bailiwick. And the Jews of Seaford and Hatcham belong to the Liberty of our Lady the Queen of England, whose bailiffs had the return, and did nought in execution thereof'.

Not entirely sure of the meaning of the passage, but it suggests that taxes were levied on the 'Jews of Hatcham' and others in Surrey and Sussex, that they paid Robert Tayllard (Constable of Guildford) and the latter did a runner. Seemingly the Jews of Hatcham were under the protection of the Queen ('belong to the Liberty of our Lady the Queen of England'.

Jewish Folklore of the East End

Jews were re-admitted to England by Oliver Cromwell, one of a number of reasons why the English revolution that overthrew the monarchy was a good thing for all its failings. Another wave of Jewish migrants arrived in the country in the 19th century, fleeing anti-semitic pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe.  They settled in East London in particular, though there was a synagogue in New Cross. On Thursday November 8th, folklorist and storyteller, Del Reid, will be giving a talk on the Jewish folklore of the East End at South East London Folklore Society. The talk starts at 8 pm at the Old Kings Head in Borough High Street (£2.50/£1.50 concessions) - facebook event details here.

Blavatsky and Blondie

Coming up next month at South East London Folklore Society:

'Gary Lachman will be giving a talk on the celebrated occultist, Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s time as a resident of London. Author of “Isis Unveiled“ & co-founder of the Theosophical Society, Madame Blavatsky is a hugely influential figure in modern esoteric history. Gary Lachman is an author of books on the meeting ground between consciousness, culture, & the western inner tradition. His new book “Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality” is published by Tarcher/Penguin'.

The talk takes place on Thursday, October 11, 2012, 8:00pm at The Old King's Head, Kings Head Yard, 45-49, Borough High St., London SE1 1NA, all for less than the price of a pint ( £2.50/£1.50 concs).

The Norwood Connection

There should be some good South London content in this. When Blavatsky moved to London in 1885 she lived at Maycot cottage in Upper Norwood (Crown Hill), where she spent her final six years writing The Secret Doctrine. WB Yeats describes a visit there: "I found Madame Blavatsky in a little house at Norwood, with, but, as she said, three followers left" (having been exposed for some fraudulent practices). Yeats was surprised that a cuckoo hooted him from a clock that had apparently stopped: "I wondered if there was some hidden mechanism and I should have been put out, I suppose, had I found any, though Henley had said to me, 'Of course she gets up fraudulent miracles, but a person of genus has to do something' (Yeats, The Trembling of the Veil, 1922).

Another visitor recalled: 'I first met dear old “H. P. B.,” as she made all her friends call her, in the spring of 1887. Some of her disciples had taken a pretty house in Norwood, where the huge glass nave and twin towers of the Crystal Palace glint above a labyrinth of streets and terraces. London was at its grimy best. The squares and gardens were scented with grape-clusters of lilac, and yellow rain of laburnums under soft green leaves. The eternal smoke-pall was thinned to a gray veil shining in the afternoon sun, with the great Westminster Towers and a thousand spires and chimneys piercing through. Every house had its smoke-wreath, trailing away to the east' (Charles Johnston, Theosophical Forum. 1900)

One of Blavatsky's best-known followers was Annie Besant, the well known feminist, birth-control advocate, and political radical. Annie Besant had also lived also lived not far away in the 1870s, at 39 Colby Road SE19. Another leading Theosophist was the American Colonel Olcott. On September. 29 1889 he gave a lecture at the Hatcham Liberal Club, New Cross described as his 'largest audience of the season'.

Touched by your presence dear

Oh so what's the Blondie connection? Well the first time I heard the word 'theosophy' was in their 1977 hit 'I am always touched by your presence, dear' which includes the line 'Coming into contact with outer entities, We could entertain each one with our theosophies'. The song was written by early Blondie bassist Gary Valentine, who also wrote another Blondie favourite, X-Offender, and played on their debut album. Valentine left the band in 1977 when they were on the verge of internaional fame, and went on to be a writer under the name Gary Lachman... the very same, all the way from CBGBs to the Old Kings Head in Borough High Street.

Blondie in 1977, Gary Valentine Lachman on the right.

The end of the world as we know it

Coming up on Thursday, September 13, 2012 at South East London Folklore Society:

When Prophecy Fails... Again

'As December 21st 2012 approaches, alternative religions writer David V Barrett looks at prophecies of the end of the world – from Jesus’ expected return to the coming Maitreya to Nostradamus to flying saucers – and at how prophets cover their embarrassment when nothing happens... again'.

Meet in the upstairs room of the Old King's Head, King's Head Yard, 45-49 Borough High Street, London SE1 1NA for an 8pm start. £2.50/£1.50 concs

Unearthing South East London

Coming up soon at South East London Folklore Society an interesting talk on 'Unearthing South East London’s Ritual Landscape'. Simon Webb, author of ‘Unearthing London: The Ancient World Beneath The Metropolis’ will be giving a talk on the ancient ritual landscape hidden beneath the streets of South East London'.

8 pm on Thursday 9th February, £2.50/£1.50 concs, at The Old King's Head, Kings Head Yard, 45-49, Borough High St, London SE1.

For information on ancient sites in the London area, check out The Modern Antiquarian.

Facebook events details here

London Subterranea

London's Lost Rivers: A Walker's Guide

An interesting talk coming up next week at South East London Folklore Society on  London's Lost Rivers, featuring the author of a new book on the subject:


'When people think of London's river, they think of the Thames. But the city was built around many other rivers too - and traces of these still remain for those who know where to look. A secret network of underground rivers snakes beneath the capital. The rivers predate the city and its people. The rivers may be buried, but they still flow underground. In some places they can be seen and heard. By rediscovering them, and tracing their courses, the way we see London is transformed. Using the visual and aural clues left in the streetscape, we can burrow down through layers of London history to river level, revealing the city as it once was. Tom Bolton is a researcher and writer, the author of London’s Lost Rivers: A Walker’s Guide: a series of ten walks tracing these hidden routes across London published by Strange Attractor'.

It takes place on Thursday December 8th, 8 pm start at The Old Kings Head, Borough High Street, SE1 (facebook event details here). Price £2.50/£1.50 concessions

All Cities have Magic

On a related theme of the matter of London and its subterranean secrets, South London 'writer, record collector, DJ and Voodoo witchdoctor' Stephen Grasso has his text Smoke and Mirrors serialised at Bang the Bore:

'All cities have magic. You just have to find it. For some, London is a mechanistic urban grind. A compassionless engine powered by seven million dreary and disillusioned lives that trudge back and forth across the city in their tremendous rush hour waves. Spilling out of holes in the ground each morning to labour at deskbound servitude or whatever menial task has been allotted, moving paper around for unknown masters, tinkering with abstract systems, selling anonymous product, keeping the machine well greased and oiled. Whatever you can do to keep the slow trickle of funds coming in. Whatever you can do to stay afloat...

The tunnels of the underground trace a boorish path through boneyards, plague pits and thwarted resting places for the dead. The air is thick with spirits down here. London is built on two thousand years of corpses, the sedimentary remains of the dead piled atop one another like a ghoulish layer cake of fossilised lives and forgotten cities that once were. On the tube, you are never far away from a skull or a rib or a thighbone. Spirits abound on the London Underground. Dead Roman centurions trying to puzzle out the implications of the East London line extension. Regency swells unwittingly trapped forever on the circle line, unable to breach its magical barrier. Victims of blitz, and fire and homemade bomb howl through the endless tunnels, snared in their death rattle, nothing left of them but a scream in the dark. Lonely suicides pack the platforms of their demise, hoping for a fleeting glimpse of the loved ones they left behind. A thick soup of spirits caught in the gap and pleading for blessed release. But to the Londoner, these old ghosts are just another nuisance trying to take up more of your valuable time. Sorry mate, got somewhere else I need to be. Keep on walking. It’s somebody else’s problem, but somebody else never comes'.


The text comes with a nice dubby mix for you to download to accompany a drift around the city.

Austin Osman Spare Talk

The South London life of Austin Osman Spare, visionary artist and occultist, has been mentioned here before.

Next week at South East London Folklore Society Phil Baker, the author of a new biography of Spare, will be giving a talk about his life.

The talk is on Thursday, September 8, 8:00pm at The Old Kings Head, Kings Head Yard, 45-49, Borough High St, London, SE1 1NA

Ghosts of London

This Thursday at South East London Folklore Society, Nigel of Bermondsey will be talking and singing on 'Ghosts of London - An exploration of capital haunting in story and song: Phantom riveters, escapees from dream menagerie and malevolent clothing. Nigel Of Bermondsey is a purveyor of psycho-geographical songs and stories from Bermondsey, South London. Also songs and tales of Wapping, Rotherhithe, Walworth, and presently, the area within the London Orbital'.

Thursday, May 12 · 8:00 pm at The Old Kings Head, Kings Head Yard, 45-49 Borough High Street, SE1. Facebook event details.