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The Thin Veil of London
May 25, 2023 @ 6:30 PM
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An unusual walk around the lesser-known corners of Holborn and Bloomsbury, interwoven with mysteries from the stories of Arthur Machen.
‘The best-guided walk I’ve ever been on.’ – Matt Brown, Londonist
The stories of Arthur Machen (1863-1947) teem with sinister ancient pre-Christian horrors – troglodyte races and malevolent fauns – that lurk just beneath the surface of modern life. Yet for Machen, these folklore evils were the flip side of a positive theology that invited the visionary to step through the veil of illusion into another world; a magical world. Sometimes the veil is lifted on ancient tumuli in the Welsh countryside of his childhood; often, it can be found in a back street in London.
The Thin Veil of London takes up this theme. Much more than an ordinary tour, it is a journey into the silent corners of Holborn and Bloomsbury. It is a journey into the worlds of Faery and science, madness and ecstasy, and what Machen called ‘the eternal beauty hidden beneath the crust of common and commonplace things; hidden and yet burning and glowing continually if you care to look with purged eyes’.
The walk begins in The Queen’s Larder pub in Bloomsbury and ends at another in the same area. See the Minimum Labyrinth website for more details.
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