folklore

Nigel of Bermondsey leads songs about Southwark

Lucky charms, amulets, mascots and hair sandwiches at SELFS tonight.

As already noted, today is the 136th birthday of Charles Fort, he of ‘Fortean’ fame. As our hat-tip to that man of mysteries, we present ten questions to test your knowledge of superstitious, supernatural London. As ever, let us know how you got on in …

Herschell Hershey One for conspiracy theorists, UFOlogists, skeptics, folklorists and the generally curious tomorrow at SELFS as Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor talks on The Abuses of Enchantment. With a new book coming out called Mirage Men: An Adventure into Disinformation, Paranoia and UFOs Mark …

Satan & Co If you didn’t get your arse in gear and buy tickets when we told you, get down to the Scoop at midday today to catch the cast of John Constable’s Southwark Mysteries with an al fresco free rehearsal/performance ahead of this week’s …

Margate Shell Grotto by skitster Grottos, semi-subterranean follies decorated with shells and other bric-a-brac, were a popular building project in the eighteenth century. Scott’s Grotto in Ware and the grotto in Painshill Park, Surrey are among those that can still be visited. London had its …

By bltphoto via the Londonist Flickrpool We finished up last week’s Fortean London in a heap at the bottom of a hill in Greenwich Park. Let’s stay there for this month. Elliot O’Donnell was a London-based Irish writer and ghost hunter who wrote more than …

Easter Monday chair lifting by skitster Easter, in our experience, usually means something beginning with a c: chocolate, crazed clubbing or Christianity. Or chicks and cute rabbits. Or ‘chucking it down with rain’. Anyway, “there must be some alternative” you plead. “Drink? Beards? Something different …

The gates of Cross Bones burial ground, Southwark Next Thursday, SELFS celebrate London’s ‘outlaw borough’ with a free spring shindig at the Old Mayfair Carpet Gallery on Borough High Street. Southwark’s steeped in stories so expect them spun, sung, scary, hairy, chilling and thrilling courtesy …

Fortean London is the London of strange histories, folklore, unique people, outsider ideas, ghosts, monsters and more. Take us by the left hand and hold on tight. Opposite Cannon Street station sits the London Stone. Grey, dusty, set behind a metal grill in an abandoned …