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SALON NO.109: London Utopias and Dystopias

Dreams and Dooms in visions of the future city

7.00pm Thursday 25th January 2024

The Horse Hospital
Colonade
London 
WC1N 1JD

Admission: Tickets £10.00 in advance only HERE

London is a city of dreams, a city of possibility and courageous aspirations..

Author NIALL KISHTAINY draws us into the imaginative worlds of dreamers like Thomas More, the Diggers, William Morris, and Extinction Rebellion protestors. 

He introduces us to thinkers like Thomas Spence the fiery radical bookseller and coin dealer who built a utopian movement in the alleys and taverns of Holborn and Soho and the squatter community of Claremont Road in Leyton in the 1990s, which began as an anti roads protest and turned into a situationist-inspired countercultural utopia and why he thinks utopian dreams remain as relevant as ever.
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London is a city of nightmares, a city whose clock is ticking and whose end is just around the corner..

Author MATT BROWN draws us into the darkness of those who have had visions of the city's utter destruction and introduces some of those who have prophesized its coming doom long before Hollywood. 

We'll meet Richard Jefferies, who foresaw the city relapsing into barbarism before being reclaimed by nature, as well as more famous novelists, illustrators and even architects who pictured London in ruins. 

At the end, Matt will reveal his Top 3 most-implausible doomsday scenarios."

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MATT BROWN is Editor-at-Large of Londonist and probably the most London-obsessed person in the world, reaching parts of the capital others can’t reach. He has waded along the buried River Fleet, spent the night in a haunted plague pit, caught a lung infection by climbing Soho’s tallest steeple and walked along the tracks beneath Leicester Square at 2am.

Matt is author of 12 books, including London Night and Day, Everything You Know About London Is Wrong and the bestselling/award-winning Atlas of Imagined Places. 



NIALL KISHTAINY writes about visionary social thinkers and the history of ideas. His first book, A Little History of Economics, has been translated into over twenty languages. 

Before becoming a writer he worked in government, international development, journalism and academia.His book The Infinite City: Utopian Dreams on the Streets of London hows how London’s spirit has been one of visionary imagination amid relentless change and innovation.

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Our home, THE HORSE HOSPITAL, is a unique Grade II listed not for profit, independent arts venue within the only existing unspoilt example of a two-floor, purpose-built stable with public access in London. 

Built in 1797 by James Burton. the shell is constructed with London Stocks whilst the interior features a mock cobbled re-inforced concrete floor and ramps with slats to prevent the horses from slipping. Each floor has 5 cast iron pillars and several original iron tethering rings.