“All the wonders lie within a stone’s-throw of King’s Cross Station.” – Arthur Machen, Far Off Things
“I began now to appreciate the fact that if you set out, without a map, from your house at 36 Great Russell Street and walk for half an hour eastward or northward you are in fact in an unknown region, a new world.” – Arthur Machen, Things Near and Far
On this dérive-ish London walk I wandered between literary locations: the houses of Charles Dickens and Samuel Johnson (both museums) and various places where Arthur Machen lived.
98 Great Russell Street, where Arthur Machen lived 1887–89, shortly after getting married.
36 Great Russell Street, where Arthur Machen lived 1893–95. The Great God Pan was published in 1894.
69 Great Russell Street, where Arthur Machen lived with his wife Amy in 1895.
4 Verulam Buildings, where Arthur Machen lived from 1895 to 1901. He wrote The Hill of Dreams, and Hieroglyphics here. And it was where his wife Amy died in 1899.
The site of 90 Guilford Street, where Arthur Machen lived 1890-91 and began The Great God Pan.
Sydney Smith, founder of the Edinburgh Review, lived here c.1803-06. (He is still remembered mainly for his rhyming recipe for salad dressing.)
Charles Dickens’s house at 48 Doughty Street, where he lived 1837–39, writing The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist.
Dr Samuel Johnson’s house, 17 Gough Square, where he lived from 1748 to 1759 and compiled his Dictionary of the English Language.
The attic where Dr Johnson’s Dictionary was compiled (a beautiful, restful place which I had all to myself).
A statue of John Wilkes, radical 18th century journalist, in Fetter Lane.
The church of St-Dunstan-in-the-West (see my other walk about St Dunstan). John Donne was vicar here 1624–31. The clock outside is mentioned in three different works by Dickens.
(With thanks to R.B. Russell’s Occult Territory, Tartarus Press (2022), for details of Machen’s homes.)
