London Month of the Dead - Mansion of Gloom

MANSION OF GLOOM The Unsettling Legacy of Poe's House of Usher At Guy's Hospital Chapel with Anthony Clayton on Sunday the 7th December 2025 at 1:30 pm Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic masterpiece The Fall of the House of Usher has gripped readers since its publication in 1839, a tale of madness, decay and the thin boundary between life and death. In this illustrated talk, author and cultural historian Antony Clayton explores how Poe’s story has echoed through the centuries, inspiring artists, filmmakers, and musicians alike. From Jean Epstein’s silent expressionist vision and Roger Corman’s technicolour horror to Philip Glass’s opera and Mike Flanagan’s 2023 Netflix reimagining, Antony traces the strange afterlife of Usher and its enduring spell on popular culture. He will also examine the real-world mysteries surrounding the story from its connection to the occultist Aleister Crowley to its influence on surrealism, sci-fi, and modern gothic aesthetics, showing how Poe’s crumbling mansion became an eternal symbol of artistic obsession and psychological collapse. Tickets £12.50 including a Gothic Punch and 20% donation to the King's Chaplaincy Trust to support medical students. Please click here to purchase. Anthony Clayton London-born and now living in Hastings, Antony Clayton is the author of Subterranean City: Beneath the Streets of London (2001 & 2010), London’s Coffee Houses (2003), Decadent London (2005, 2019), Secret Tunnels of England, Folklore and Fact (September 2015), Netherwood: Last Resort of Aleister Crowley (2012 & 2017) and Mansion of Gloom (forthcoming 2023). He has given talks at the British Library, ICA, Conway Hall, Freemason’s Hall and various other venues in and out of London.

MANSION OF GLOOM
The Unsettling Legacy of Poe's House of Usher
At Guy's Hospital Chapel with Anthony Clayton
on Sunday the 7th December 2025 at 1:30 pm

Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic masterpiece The Fall of the House of Usher has gripped readers since its publication in 1839, a tale of madness, decay and the thin boundary between life and death.

In this illustrated talk, author and cultural historian Antony Clayton explores how Poe’s story has echoed through the centuries, inspiring artists, filmmakers, and musicians alike. From Jean Epstein’s silent expressionist vision and Roger Corman’s technicolour horror to Philip Glass’s opera and Mike Flanagan’s 2023 Netflix reimagining, Antony traces the strange afterlife of Usher and its enduring spell on popular culture.

He will also examine the real-world mysteries surrounding the story from its connection to the occultist Aleister Crowley to its influence on surrealism, sci-fi, and modern gothic aesthetics, showing how Poe’s crumbling mansion became an eternal symbol of artistic obsession and psychological collapse.

Tickets £12.50 including a Gothic Punch and 20% donation to the King's Chaplaincy Trust to support medical students. Please click here to purchase.

Anthony Clayton
London-born and now living in Hastings, Antony Clayton is the author of Subterranean City: Beneath the Streets of London (2001 & 2010), London’s Coffee Houses (2003), Decadent London (2005, 2019), Secret Tunnels of England, Folklore and Fact (September 2015), Netherwood: Last Resort of Aleister Crowley (2012 & 2017) and Mansion of Gloom (forthcoming 2023). He has given talks at the British Library, ICA, Conway Hall, Freemason’s Hall and various other venues in and out of London.