The Grey Soul of London

Summary

‘He who cannot find wonder, mystery, awe, the sense of a new world and an undiscovered realm in the places by the Gray’s Inn Road will never find those secrets elsewhere.’ – Arthur Machen

The Grey Soul of London is an audio guided tour. Robert Kingham takes a walk across the worn and hollowed stones of the Angel and Clerkenwell districts of London in search of places that inspired the writer Arthur Machen (1863-1947). This was originally a historical guided tour commissioned for the Museum of London’s Urban Myths season in 2011.

The Grey Soul of London has now been rewritten and expanded for 2023, with incidental music by Rich Cochrane. Everything you need in terms of directions and instructions is contained within the audio narrative, so you can just listen and walk. If you want, you can also find a map of the walk online at minimumlabyrinth.org, plus a picture gallery illustrating some of the people, places and events mentioned.

‘It is a district both devious and obscure, and I suppose that its twisting streets and unexpected squares of dusty trees will all come to ruin before they are intelligently explored.’ – Arthur Machen