Phil Baker’s guide to the London of Aleister Crowley

City of the Beast-The London of Aleister Crowley is a fascinating account of the occultist Aleister Crowley’s life in London as told through ninety three locations where Crowley visited, stayed at or attended one of his many bohemian drinking and drug events.

The book is written by Phil Baker, the author of the excellent biography Austin Osman Spare: The Life and Legend of London’s Lost Artist amongst others. Baker has produced a fine and compelling account of Crowley’s life during this period. It is a biography which meets psychogeography in that Crowley’s footprint can be observed across the capital and for those who are able, can see what has now become of these places.

Crowley was a man of many parts, his fame and notoriety far outweighed his fortune. He squandered his inheritance and lived a life getting by on meagre royalties and the charity of others whilst adopting a carefree attitude to mounting debts. Baker brilliantly portrays the squalor of some of the places Crowley would frequent; drug dens, brothels, late night drinking establishments and decrepit houses, he flitted between these and numerous residencies, staying in hotels he couldn’t pay the bills for and throughout the book we learn about a man who ‘winged’ his way through much of his life be it on free lunches, boarding or fundraising for his many projects.

Baker gives a frank, independent portrayal of a man of truly great myth and legend, much of it heaped on others by the Press but despite the squalor and the depravity you are left pondering a life and times hard to imagine today. Crowley immersed himself in the Bohemian London scene until poor health and heroin addiction took hold in his later years with his death at the age of seventy two.