A glorious spring afternoon on the 5th April marked the birth of London Adventure: Explorations into Hidden Literary London, a projected series of walks initiated and organised by FOAM member Nicolas Granger-Taylor. Fittingly, this very first walk celebrated Arthur Machen in the 1890's, and was led by the young man with spectacles himself.
Around thirty people attended, including a smattering of literati, occultists, FOAM members and 19th Century enthusiasts. Genially led by Nick on a well researched agenda, we enjoyed an excellent perambulation around Machen's Bloomsbury and Holborn. Setting out from the British Museum, the walkers toured Machen sites and residences in Great Russell Street, Bedford Way, Guilford Street, Red Lion Square and Gray's Inn Road - terminating at The Cittie of Yorke for refreshment.
The perfect weather had made for a busy London afternoon, but as soon as the walkers turned away from Great Russell Street into the nether thoroughfares east of Bloomsbury and then southwards towards Theobalds Road, that curious and mysterious atmosphere so well conjured by Machen in his writings was palpably felt by all. There was a particularly eerie silence in Guilford Street as we contemplated Machen's 1890-91 residence adjacent to the old Foundling Hospital. By the time we reached Red Lion Square and finally Verulam Buildings on Gray's Inn Road, the atmosphere had become redolent with suggestion; if a London fog had descended and Miss Lally appeared in our midst, it would have been no surprise.
Before retiring to The Cittie of Yorke, and lingering for a moment at Verulam Buildings, the ambient sound of London traffic barely disturbing the timelessness of the place, it was not difficult to make a leap of mind back to 1896 and 1897. For this very location where Machen experienced a "horror of the soul" and a cathartic unleashing of creativity culminating in The Hill of Dreams, remained on this perfect April afternoon in 2003, as enigmatic as ever. As we slowly drifted away, did the walls of Number Four Verulam Buildings slightly shake and lose their outlines for a split second as a breeze stirred the trees? Or did this writer perhaps imagine it?
Thanks, Nick, for a splendid and poignant Machen afternoon and for having launched the London Adventure initiative with such panache.
Jeremy Cantwell.
