SALON NO.131: London Cranks and Ne'er do Wells

 Capital Crazies, Crooks and Curios

7.00pm Thursday 26th February 2026

The Horse Hospital

Colonade

London 

WC1N 1JD

Admission: Tickets £13.80 in advance only HERE

Capital Crooks, Crazies and Curios

Historian of Science LAURENCE SCALES surveys some of the London cranks whose controversial claims have somehow escaped historical oblivion. Figures such as Archbishop James Ussher, buried at Westminster Abbey, who pinpointed the Creation to the evening of 22nd October 4004BC - just one of the eccentrics lurking at the fringes of science and theology, with cosmological theories, schemes of perpetual motion, and impractical inventions.

Did any of them manage to leave us with anything important, and if so, was it by insight or accident? Laurence investigates.

Meanwhile, London guide and historian ROBERT STEPHENSON goes in search of the underbelly of Victorian society, with tales of some of the criminals, frauds, social outcasts, philanderers, quack doctors, card cheats, blackmailers, and murderers buried at Kensal Green.

Most occupants of this pioneering garden cemetery were respectable, but a significant few fell prey to lust, broke the law or scandalised society in some way. Amongst them, the narcissist extraordinaire Robert ‘Romeo’ Coates, generally described as the worst actor in England. Robert will exhume their controversial corpses for our scrutiny.

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LAURENCE SCALES is a London guide and historian of science. He is an avid collector of the colourful and often neglected characters who made the extraordinary technological and scientific history of London.

ROBERT STEPHENSON is a qualified City of London Culture and Heritage guide and a trustee at Kensal Green and Brompton cemeteries. He teaches on London and death studies and is chairman of the National Federation of Cemetery Friends.

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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.

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