Explore the Secrets of Occult London

What's Included

Meeting and pickup

Itinerary

• 1
  Cleopatra's Needle

  An authentic ancient Egyptian obelisk in the heart of Victorian London, Cleopatra’s Needle links New Kingdom Egypt, imperial spectacle, wartime scars, and one of Aleister Crowley’s most theatrical public acts: his sunrise presentation of The Book of the Law as a “charter of universal freedom.”

  20 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 2

  Old Tivoli Theatre: this former theatre site connects Crowley’s London to music hall culture, show-business promotion, and the all-female Ragged Ragtime Girls, whose tours helped inspire major works including “Hymn to Pan” and the Gnostic Mass.

  5 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 3

  Hotel Cecil, Now Shell Mex House: once one of Europe’s largest hotels, the Hotel Cecil became an important base during Crowley’s early magical development, where his studies, visions, and meetings with key Golden Dawn figures helped set him on the path of serious occult practice.

  5 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 4
  The Savoy

  The Savoy represents the opulent, decadent side of Crowley’s London, from its associations with Oscar Wilde to Crowley’s 1911 meeting with Mary d’Este Sturges, a relationship that helped produce Book 4 and shaped his later magical work.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 5

  At this Covent Garden address, members of Crowley’s A∴A∴ could order elaborate ceremonial robes, turning occult grades and magical symbolism into tangible garments made for ritual use.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 6

  ondon’s oldest surviving occult bookshop, Watkins is a living link to the Theosophical Society, the Golden Dawn, W. B. Yeats, and Crowley’s magical world, complete with a legendary tale of Crowley making the shop’s entire stock vanish before returning it to the shelves.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 7
  Royal Courts of Justice

  This imposing Gothic court was the scene of Crowley’s legal battle with S. L. MacGregor Mathers over the publication of Golden Dawn rituals in The Equinox, a case that helped define Crowley’s reputation as both magical rebel and public provocateur.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 8
  Fleet Street

  The Looking Glass Case: this stop explores the scandal press, the Rites of Eleusis, and the libel case that damaged Crowley’s circle after attacks in The Looking Glass, revealing how occultism, journalism, reputation, and Edwardian morality collided in public view.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 9

  Crowley’s Chancery Lane rooms became a private laboratory of magical experiment, with dedicated ritual spaces, early work in astral projection and evocation, and some of the most unsettling stories from his formative occult career.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 10
  Freemasons' Hall

  Near this site, Crowley was initiated into the Golden Dawn in 1898, entering the magical order that would profoundly shape his early occult training and set the stage for many of the conflicts, revelations, and innovations that followed.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 11

  Bloomsbury’s occult book trade was central to Crowley’s later London life, from Atlantis Bookshop and its eccentric network to Mandrake Press, which published key works such as Moonchild and The Confessions of Aleister Crowley.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 12

  A bohemian interwar haunt close to Atlantis Bookshop and the Bloomsbury occult book trade, The Plough was one of Crowley’s occasional drinking spots and appears in his diaries under affectionate nicknames such as “the Plug” and “Baby’s Bottom.” This final stop brings the walk back from grand temples, courts, and magical scandals into the more human world of pubs, bookshops, gossip, and the everyday social life of London occultism.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free

Additional info

• Service animals allowed
• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
• Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
• Not recommended for pregnant travelers
• Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health

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