London Uncanny

Clive Bloom shines a light on Gothic London's uncanny literature, arcane events and its infamous and imagined geographies.

About the event

Across time, the most depraved depictions of London in fiction, film, poetry, television and theatre have irrevocably merged with the reality of the capital’s dark history.

From David Bowie to TS Eliot, Thomas de Quincey to Aleister Crowley, the prophetess Joanna Southcott to the ‘ghosts’ of Abba and the worlds of Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker, these are the figures that populate a city lost in fog and blind alleys, where the dead can be raised, the living sacrificed and the clandestine thrive.

Exploring London across the centuries through disease and degeneracy, death and murder, spiritualism, lunacy and the occult, Clive Bloom presents the capital’s urban landscape as a space of wonder and madness, simultaneously haunted by its past and haunting the present.

Additional information

This event is eligible for our 20% ticket bundle discount.

Book tickets to three or more different events across the festival and you can save 20%. Tickets must be purchased in the same transaction and the discount will automatically be applied within the basket.

About the speaker

Clive Bloom is Professor in Residence at Hull University. A feature writer for several newspapers, he is the author of many books on topics from literature to politics, including the London political histories ‘Violent City’ (2003) and ‘Riot City’ (2012). He has also curated exhibitions on Jack the Ripper and the Siege of Sidney Street for the Museum of London.