The British psychogeographic writers : reviving occult London through the art of wandering and the subversion of Thatcherite spatial revitalization

Abstract

My thesis will examine the point at which the entire body of British psychogeographers meet, which is the hunger and desire for the revival of London’s past. Through the act of walking, which, unlike any other form of transportation, serves as a medium, these artists are able to tap into the darker forces that haunt the city. As a place whose history is overflowing with the supernatural, the occult, and the mystical, Britain’s government under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980’s and 1990’s attempted to suppress these malevolent forces in order to create a more thriving capital. As the Thatcherite rule focused on urban secularization, free-market economics, and the rationalization of the East End, much of the original cityscape was lost in order to make room for more tourist-friendly areas. With the visual aspect of an older London changed, so did the collective memory of the people, which resulted in a communal amnesia. The British psychogeographers, feeling a strong sense of nostalgia for the place they felt once represented London, attempted to expose the darkest elements of the city in order to show its true face. This thesis will argue that by immersing themselves into the most esoteric practices and movements of the past, particularly through their obsession with the occult and their collective natural intuition, the psychogeographers are able, through their wanderings and recordings, to expose what they believe is the real London.