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City of the Beast: The London of Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley, “The Great Beast”, infamous author and occultist, had a love-hate relationship with London, but it was where he spent much of his adult life, and it was the capital of the culture that created him.
City of the Beast is not a walking guide, although many routes could be pieced together from its pages. It is a biography by sites, revealing a man, an era, and a city. Fusing life-writing with psychogeography, steeped in London’s social history from Victoria to the Blitz, it draws extensively on unpublished material and offers an exceptionally intimate picture of the Beast.
Through 93 locations, we follow Crowley searching for prostitutes in Hyde Park and Pimlico, drinking absinthe and eating Chinese food in Soho, and finding himself down on his luck in Paddington Green – but never quite losing sight of the illumination that drove him: “the abiding rapture,” he wrote in his diary, “which makes a ‘bus in the street sound like an angel choir!”
City of the Beast is not a walking guide, although many routes could be pieced together from its pages. It is a biography by sites, revealing a man, an era, and a city. Fusing life-writing with psychogeography, steeped in London’s social history from Victoria to the Blitz, it draws extensively on unpublished material and offers an exceptionally intimate picture of the Beast.
Through 93 locations, we follow Crowley searching for prostitutes in Hyde Park and Pimlico, drinking absinthe and eating Chinese food in Soho, and finding himself down on his luck in Paddington Green – but never quite losing sight of the illumination that drove him: “the abiding rapture,” he wrote in his diary, “which makes a ‘bus in the street sound like an angel choir!”
342 pages, Hardcover
Published May 1, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 31, 2022
Three stars, but should be five.
When I first heard about this book I imagined it to be something in the vein of Tobias Churton’s ‘Beast in…’ series which are Berlin, America, India and, soon, Paris. Where will it end? The Beast in Tescos?
However, this book's premise is to give a biography (more personal than magickal) via 93 (sigh!) locations he was associated with in London.
Despite my pre-purchase cynicism, the book that arrived worked very well indeed. Barker really knows his stuff and draws upon a vast array of sources such as autobiographies by those who knew him, newspaper reports, journal articles and perhaps most interestingly A.C.’s unpublished diaries. These are combined to not only reveal a snapshot of Crowley’s life as he (or others) saw him but place him into some sort of geographical context, locations which varied as his circumstances waxed and waned.
The book punctures the image of Crowley as Mage and ‘gentleman about town’ and shows him more as a seedy sort of confidence trickster, running up vast bills with shops and hotels before leaving via the back door or having his possessions cast into the street when landladies finally get sick of waiting for his rent. It also really brings home just how many freaks and weirdos he associated with such flat sharing with the equally corrupt Gerald Hamilton taking payments for spying on Hamilton’s Communist pals while Hamilton in turn spied on Crowley and his German pals. Or living with various (read 'numerous') by-and-large mentally unstable (congenitally or via drink and drugs, or both) women. What could possibly go wrong?
Vast sums of money seem to have been channelled to Crowley at various times by his disciples, squandard(?) on luxuries like foie gras and oysters, and queries over this spending were given short shrift. When Karl Germer wrote asking why the money he’d given to Crowley and his current mistresses was spent on a cleaner suggesting that perhaps they could do it themselves Crowley replied “Your letter of June 20th is, I think, the most nauseous thing I have ever read…in your second paragraph you are even more psychopathic”, a quote that amuses and horrifies simultaneously. But then this is someone who would write an imaginary epitaph of the lover he was just about to move in with, Pearl Brooksmith - a heavy drinker:
Here lies a Pearl of a woman
Who lived in open sin
One end collected semen,
The other guzzled gin.
I have stated elsewhere that the famed ’Crowley wit’ has largely passed me by, but the above is pure genius.
It is not all scurrilous stories. Baker records Crowley inviting Dion Fortune and her husband round for chilli con Carne (how suburban- just like my childhood) and his volatile relationship (weren’t they all?) with Lady Frieda Harris and as indicated above, his long-suffering disciples. More interesting to me are the links Baker makes between Crowley and numerous artists and authors via now long-vanished clubs and pubs with asides indicating the past and present history of the buildings concerned- one can envision the psychogeographers wetting their pencils...
This should be a five-star book but (very sadly) it isn’t. In his introduction, Baker states that it was originally intended as a gazetteer but subsequently developed into what we have now. But it is hard not to compare ‘The City of the Beast’ with 'Occult Territory- An Arthur Machen Gazetteer’ issued in 1919 a year before Baker's project got underway. Sure, the Machen volume is alphabetical by place name whereas Baker's is organized by Crowley's biography, but what really added to the feel of that book are the photographs of the buildings themselves choosing images as close Machen’s time as possible. Something similar would have hugely enhanced Baker’s book. I would have gone even further and added a map to the book showing the locations because if one did not know London well one scarcely gets the sense of Crowley’s surprising limited territory. Neither are jobs to undertake lightly but this is where the internet excels and I would much have preferred a map over a bookmark as that's what the silk marker in the book is for. I might also quibble over a few facts (Nina Hamnett should be remembered as a highly regarded artist rather than just a model) and, as I’m getting older now, the type size which seems a bit mean.
For these sins, I am docking this book two stars. This is a real pity because I really liked this book in every other respect and I really liked what Baker has done and the style in which he writes. I like minutiae and if you have an interest in Crowley you’ll want this book for the wealth and detail of all new information. It is also a pleasure to see it all properly sourced/noted and with a comprehensive bibliography and index. I just wish that the author/publisher had 'zoomed out' from the details to give us some images and a map.
When I first heard about this book I imagined it to be something in the vein of Tobias Churton’s ‘Beast in…’ series which are Berlin, America, India and, soon, Paris. Where will it end? The Beast in Tescos?
However, this book's premise is to give a biography (more personal than magickal) via 93 (sigh!) locations he was associated with in London.
Despite my pre-purchase cynicism, the book that arrived worked very well indeed. Barker really knows his stuff and draws upon a vast array of sources such as autobiographies by those who knew him, newspaper reports, journal articles and perhaps most interestingly A.C.’s unpublished diaries. These are combined to not only reveal a snapshot of Crowley’s life as he (or others) saw him but place him into some sort of geographical context, locations which varied as his circumstances waxed and waned.
The book punctures the image of Crowley as Mage and ‘gentleman about town’ and shows him more as a seedy sort of confidence trickster, running up vast bills with shops and hotels before leaving via the back door or having his possessions cast into the street when landladies finally get sick of waiting for his rent. It also really brings home just how many freaks and weirdos he associated with such flat sharing with the equally corrupt Gerald Hamilton taking payments for spying on Hamilton’s Communist pals while Hamilton in turn spied on Crowley and his German pals. Or living with various (read 'numerous') by-and-large mentally unstable (congenitally or via drink and drugs, or both) women. What could possibly go wrong?
Vast sums of money seem to have been channelled to Crowley at various times by his disciples, squandard(?) on luxuries like foie gras and oysters, and queries over this spending were given short shrift. When Karl Germer wrote asking why the money he’d given to Crowley and his current mistresses was spent on a cleaner suggesting that perhaps they could do it themselves Crowley replied “Your letter of June 20th is, I think, the most nauseous thing I have ever read…in your second paragraph you are even more psychopathic”, a quote that amuses and horrifies simultaneously. But then this is someone who would write an imaginary epitaph of the lover he was just about to move in with, Pearl Brooksmith - a heavy drinker:
Here lies a Pearl of a woman
Who lived in open sin
One end collected semen,
The other guzzled gin.
I have stated elsewhere that the famed ’Crowley wit’ has largely passed me by, but the above is pure genius.
It is not all scurrilous stories. Baker records Crowley inviting Dion Fortune and her husband round for chilli con Carne (how suburban- just like my childhood) and his volatile relationship (weren’t they all?) with Lady Frieda Harris and as indicated above, his long-suffering disciples. More interesting to me are the links Baker makes between Crowley and numerous artists and authors via now long-vanished clubs and pubs with asides indicating the past and present history of the buildings concerned- one can envision the psychogeographers wetting their pencils...
This should be a five-star book but (very sadly) it isn’t. In his introduction, Baker states that it was originally intended as a gazetteer but subsequently developed into what we have now. But it is hard not to compare ‘The City of the Beast’ with 'Occult Territory- An Arthur Machen Gazetteer’ issued in 1919 a year before Baker's project got underway. Sure, the Machen volume is alphabetical by place name whereas Baker's is organized by Crowley's biography, but what really added to the feel of that book are the photographs of the buildings themselves choosing images as close Machen’s time as possible. Something similar would have hugely enhanced Baker’s book. I would have gone even further and added a map to the book showing the locations because if one did not know London well one scarcely gets the sense of Crowley’s surprising limited territory. Neither are jobs to undertake lightly but this is where the internet excels and I would much have preferred a map over a bookmark as that's what the silk marker in the book is for. I might also quibble over a few facts (Nina Hamnett should be remembered as a highly regarded artist rather than just a model) and, as I’m getting older now, the type size which seems a bit mean.
For these sins, I am docking this book two stars. This is a real pity because I really liked this book in every other respect and I really liked what Baker has done and the style in which he writes. I like minutiae and if you have an interest in Crowley you’ll want this book for the wealth and detail of all new information. It is also a pleasure to see it all properly sourced/noted and with a comprehensive bibliography and index. I just wish that the author/publisher had 'zoomed out' from the details to give us some images and a map.
Read
September 3, 2022Part gazetteer, part biography, which is to say a wonderfully entertaining life of Aleister Crowley told through a sequence of London addresses. Very evocative of time and place. Some proper laugh-out-loud lines and stories, and a lot of references I've highlighted to follow up. If you're interested in early C20 occult or seedy characters, this is a terrific and engaging read.
August 20, 2022
A treasure-house of entertaining material about Crowley, offering an informal biography of a fascinating character in the guise of a gazetteer. Some of the stories might be too oblique to fit a formal biography, or would deflect from the main narrative, but here they are given the room they require, and they do illuminate our understanding of Crowley’s character.
And it works as a Gazetteer, too, although I would have loved to see some photographs of the sites discussed.
And it works as a Gazetteer, too, although I would have loved to see some photographs of the sites discussed.
September 14, 2024
"The most iconic Occultist of the 20th century" is how Phil Baker described Aleister Crowley in a talk given in London's Watkins Books, a well-known magic bookshop once frequented by WB Yeats, Mick Jagger, Terrance Stamp and The Great Beast himself, having watched the above talk on YouTube, after the comics legend and magician Alan Moore recommended it in 2022, I sought out a copy and devoured it this Summer.
The structure of the book is in 90-odd bitesize chunks, of locations that Crowley lived in, passed through, was a customer of, or used as headquarters at various stages of his vivid and eccentric career. One of Baker's real strengths is his ability to zero in on the juicier elements of AC's character and interactions with people and bring a large amount of fascinated horror, humour (both Crowley's and his own) out of what can be wild or borderline unbelievable happenings.
Crowley's multitude of interests, his egomania, voracious sexuality, and globetrotting misadventures are given unvarnished attention here, and the author treads an admirable path in getting to the core of an enigmatic and controversial figure. The picture of him that emerges is more thorough, and human, than several prior more linear biographies. A revelation.
The structure of the book is in 90-odd bitesize chunks, of locations that Crowley lived in, passed through, was a customer of, or used as headquarters at various stages of his vivid and eccentric career. One of Baker's real strengths is his ability to zero in on the juicier elements of AC's character and interactions with people and bring a large amount of fascinated horror, humour (both Crowley's and his own) out of what can be wild or borderline unbelievable happenings.
Crowley's multitude of interests, his egomania, voracious sexuality, and globetrotting misadventures are given unvarnished attention here, and the author treads an admirable path in getting to the core of an enigmatic and controversial figure. The picture of him that emerges is more thorough, and human, than several prior more linear biographies. A revelation.
June 14, 2022
An insightful and well-research study of the life of Aleister Crowley through different places in London he and his connections lived, worked, ate, and ... did less reputable things. If you are interested in Crowley the man, rather than as an icon, this is really fantastic. You see through the facade and myth to a real person who was a mix of bravado and elitism with real naivité and the ridiculous. He also has some rather impressive tasting recipes.
The author - Phil Baker - is what makes this book really shine. He crafts the story of each location so you feel drawn into the narratives surrounding Crowley, and you get a real sense of the characters, the streets, and the city. Baker also offers a regular dose of humour, which I find so wonderful and rare in non-fiction. I loved it so much that, mid-way through, I went out to buy another of his books.
The author - Phil Baker - is what makes this book really shine. He crafts the story of each location so you feel drawn into the narratives surrounding Crowley, and you get a real sense of the characters, the streets, and the city. Baker also offers a regular dose of humour, which I find so wonderful and rare in non-fiction. I loved it so much that, mid-way through, I went out to buy another of his books.
January 13, 2023
This very untraditional geographical biography follows Crowley in London over the span of 60 years. If you are looking for a discussion of his writings or his magick practices you will be disappointed, but I found this an exciting way to follow someone’s life via the city he called “Vile London.” If you are not familiar with the city, I’m not sure how much you will enjoy the trainspotting aspect of it, but I found it helped me imagine a London that no longer exists and explained what made Crowley tick better than any standard biography (of which quite a number already exist). I also thoroughly enjoyed the essay at the end of the book tying Crowley’s work and world view to the 1890 Decadent poets.
May 3, 2024
Personal thoughts:
-have not finished it yet but so far Crowley is a mood and sets a detailed and graphic setting of the time through its characters, references and environments that truly display humanity not too far different from today
- It is a lot to read and understand innately but it is a really good book that I'm sure I will love in the near future
-have not finished it yet but so far Crowley is a mood and sets a detailed and graphic setting of the time through its characters, references and environments that truly display humanity not too far different from today
- It is a lot to read and understand innately but it is a really good book that I'm sure I will love in the near future
September 2, 2022
An exciting and compulsively readable book. We follow Crowley all over London, meet the people and visit the places he knew. Ultimately a portrait of a sad self-destroying man who could never stop kidding and deceiving himself, and everyone he knew.
February 18, 2025
Aleister Crowley was the most influential occultist of the 20th century. He wrote poems about drinking vomit and eating feces, a real godless fuck. How the hell is he soo famous and he even got knighted by the Queen? This book serves as a great biography of “The King of Depravity”
It’s well-written and obviously well-researched. It covers everything—his Christian upbringing, his time at Cambridge, his introduction to the occult, and his initiation into the Golden Dawn, where he studied Kabbalah and grimoires like The Lesser Key of Solomon. Then there are the drugs, the sex rituals, the prostitution-his whole chaotic life.
I couldn’t decide whether Crowley was a Powerful Black magician who’d mastered the laws of the material realm or just an eccentric with delusions of grandeur. His diary entries are outrageously funny. Most of the time he’s a degenerate, pompous, lecherous, hedonist but there are times where it seems like he actually knew his shit. Either way he was quite the character, I like him.
If you’re interested in Crowley, this is a solid book to pick up. You really get to know him.
It’s well-written and obviously well-researched. It covers everything—his Christian upbringing, his time at Cambridge, his introduction to the occult, and his initiation into the Golden Dawn, where he studied Kabbalah and grimoires like The Lesser Key of Solomon. Then there are the drugs, the sex rituals, the prostitution-his whole chaotic life.
I couldn’t decide whether Crowley was a Powerful Black magician who’d mastered the laws of the material realm or just an eccentric with delusions of grandeur. His diary entries are outrageously funny. Most of the time he’s a degenerate, pompous, lecherous, hedonist but there are times where it seems like he actually knew his shit. Either way he was quite the character, I like him.
If you’re interested in Crowley, this is a solid book to pick up. You really get to know him.
December 21, 2022
An amazing read.
Crowley is humanized and dealt with realistically. He is presented not as a monster, Magus, or prophet but as a man floundering through life and London. When in London, I will certainly have my copy at the ready.
I look forward to walking the streets where AC raised his walking stick in adoration to the noontime Sun and while on route to an evening at the theater.
Crowley is humanized and dealt with realistically. He is presented not as a monster, Magus, or prophet but as a man floundering through life and London. When in London, I will certainly have my copy at the ready.
I look forward to walking the streets where AC raised his walking stick in adoration to the noontime Sun and while on route to an evening at the theater.
March 10, 2025
Full of interesting information, but unfortunately so many inaccuracies, so much hearsay and so much pointless polemic that it became unreadable after a while. Pointless as a historical source, but interesting enough for the psychogeography of London during Crowley’s lifetime.
March 31, 2025
Detailed review here
https://baffledspirit.blogspot.com/20...
https://baffledspirit.blogspot.com/20...
November 27, 2025
A great insight into the world and time that Aleister Crowley lived in. This has further led me into exploring the various characters and acquaintances that were highlighted here.
July 7, 2024
Meticulous and sometimes confronting gazetteer, quoting extensively from primary sources like the Great Beast's unpublished diaries
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews