Lucy Barker – May 2023
Victorian England was obsessed with discovery – not of the world, but of ideas. This thirst for the new led, in no small part, to an unparalleled increase of interest in alternative spiritual practices. Theosophy, Vegetarianism, Humanism, Love Cults: they all found their foothold during this try-anything century that had introduced the radical idea that perhaps we weren’t created by God.
But none of those ideologies held the glamour, the celebrity-endorsement and the panache of Spiritualism. While attempting to talk to spirits wasn’t necessarily anything new, the media furore around the knocks and bangs of the Fox Sisters in 1840s New York State raised its profile and birthed a whole new religion. Spiritualism still had its roots in Christianity – seances would traditionally open and close with prayers and its tenets mirror those of Christian systems – but it was its meshing with the Victorians’ love of the sensational, and the opportunity to make a few quid, that really drew the crowds.
From table-tipping in Buckingham Palace to levitations in Westminster to full spirits in Hackney front parlours, let’s explore the sites of some of Victorian London’s most memorable Spiritualist moments and heroes.
61 LAMBS CONDUIT STREET, HOLBORN – THE FLYING ENCHANTRESS
This was the site of one of Victorian spiritualism’s most audacious stunts: the apporting of the medium Agnes Guppy on 3rd June, 1871 from her home in Highbury into the middle of a séance hosted by Frank Herne and Charles Williams.
Herne & Williams were a bold pair, more interested in filling their seances with physical phenomena such as music, lights and apports than traditional vocal mediumship. They lived and performed together in rooms at 61 Lambs Conduit Street, and it was here that June night in the middle of a séance, that one of their attendees said how he wished Agnes Guppy were there.
Within a few moments, there was a kerfuffle in the dark and when a candle was lit, Agnes was revealed sitting in the middle of the seance table with her accounting book in her hand, in stocking feet and a housecoat wearing an expression of utter confusion.
It’s three miles between 61 Lambs Conduit Street and Highbury Hill, and Agnes was sworn to have been very much at home that evening until that very moment by her devoted husband, Samuel, (who was downstairs at the time) and friend Miss Nyman (who claimed to have been sitting with her when she disappeared).
Such was the public excitement at this event that Agnes was dubbed The Flying Enchantress by the spiritualist press and her status as one of the best Mediums of her time cemented.
15 ASHLEY PLACE, WESTMINSTER – THE GREAT LEVITATION: DANIEL DUNGLAS HOME
On 16th November, 1868, at a séance held here in Lord Adare’s rooms, international medium D D Home levitated out of one third storey window and back in another.
D D Home led rather a colourful life. Despite a scandal when the widow who adopted him (aged 33) changed her mind and sued him for the £60,000 she’d given him for an introduction into high society, Home remained something of a global superstar medium, popular with the wealthy and influential including Napoleon III and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. His USP was his ability to levitate, and it was here at 15 Ashley Place that he performed his most well-documented episode, where it was reported he went in and out of a window, horizontally, 70ft above the ground.
55 ELEANOR ROAD, HACKNEY – FLORENCE COOK: QUEEN OF MATERIALISATIONS
In early 1870, behind the humble facade of one of Eleanor Road’s small, terraced houses, a star of English spiritualism was finding her feet. Or, rather, the feet of her spirit guide, Katie King.
Florence Cook was living with her parents and three younger siblings, performing seances from her parlour to growing interest when, in 1871, at the age of 15, she was jettisoned to fame after delivering the first full spirit materialisation in England.
Mentored by Herne & Williams, she went on to be championed by some of the most important names in both British and American spiritualist society including Sir William Crookes who became her most ardent patron. Florence’s star rose quickly but unfortunately, it fell just as fast after a series of minor exposures (until, in 1880, ‘Katie King’ was grabbed and the truth irrefutably revealed.
20 MORNINGTON ROAD – PATRON AND ADVOCATE: SIR WILLIAM CROOKES
Famed chemist, Crookes, was one of a group of high-profile scientists who became enthusiastic spiritualists. And why not: in a century when established belief systems were turned on their heads, why not being able to connect with the dead?
Crookes considered his scientific credentials put him in a more discerning position than the layman, conducting tests and experiments with mediums. When mediums kept passing his tests, he became convinced and, after meeting Florence Cook, became her most ardent supporter, even in the face of some of her later, sloppier materialisations (some put this down to the elderly Crooke’s failing eyesight). He was such a big patron of Cook’s that, while his wife was pregnant with their 10th child, Florence was invited to live with Crookes for a period here at Mornington Road to participate in more intensive research. He continued to advocate for Florence, even when she was revealed to be a fake.
12 HIGHBURY HILL PARK – THE FLIGHT BEGINS: AGNES GUPPY
This well-to-do townhouse was home to Agnes Guppy and her first husband, Samuel. It’s from here that Agnes began her journey over the chimney pots of London and into the séance at Lamb’s Conduit Street.
Agnes was a brilliant medium. With humble origins and a dubious arrival in London, she quickly gained popularity after being introduced to Alfred Wallace Russel, another great scientist (he had originated the theory of evolution alongside Darwin) who had become an ardent spiritualist. Both a public and domestic medium with friendships that stretched into the private circles of amateurs and spectacle, Agnes’s appeal was not her youth or looks but her enduring talent and ability to avoid exposure, securing her reputation throughout her life.
HYDE PARK HOTEL – AN EXCELLENT VOCATION: CATHERINE BERRY
Now the Mandarin Oriental London, the Hyde Park Hotel was one of London’s most expensive places to stay in London. The fact that medium Catherine Berry, one of Agnes’ contemporaries who shared tables with her many times over the years, who came from an ordinary family in Suffolk lived here in a suite for several years during the 1870s is testimony to quite how lucrative Spiritualism had become.
20 DELAMERE CRESCENT – GEORGIANA HOUGHTON
Georgiana was a powerhouse in mid-late nineteenth century Spiritualism. A passionate amateur private medium, she was incredibly well respected throughout Spiritualist society, with D D Home inviting her to speak in 1867 at the opening of the Spiritual Athenaeum in London. Georgiana was also one of spirit photography’s greatest advocates and was herself a trailblazing spirit artist, with her artworks created by spirits via a planchette.
Delamere Crescent was a very busy place, where she regularly held seances with both fellow amateurs and big names such as England’s first public medium, Mary Marshall, Herne & Williams, Agnes Guppy and Emma Hardinge Britten. This wasn’t a bit of fun for Georgiana, though, or an opportunity to make money. She was trusting, loyal and whole-heartedly dedicated to Spiritualism, practising entirely behind closed doors, and never for money or gifts. Her diaries are a testimony to the power of belief, and the comfort that spiritualism brought to those experiencing the pain of loss.
BUCKINGHAM PALACE – QUEEN VICTORIA
While there were no actual seances at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Osborne House are rather a trek from London, so let’s use BP as a catchall for now.
Queen Victoria’s interest in Spiritualism was piqued in 1846 when Georgiana Eagle shared her clairvoyance with the Queen in a display at Osborne. In the early 1860s, after the death of Albert, after a teenaged boy from Leicester named Robert Lees received a message from Albert calling Victoria by a private name no one else would know, he was invited to several seances at Windsor Castle to connect the Queen with her husband.