Sohemians

18/10/2026

There are a couple of forthcoming, free-entry exhibitions that might interest you. From 24 - 25 October 2026 (11.00am - 5.00pm) in the pontoon supporting the S.S. Robin at Trinity Buoy Wharf, 64 Orchard Place, there’ll be an exhibition of never-before-exhibited nineteenth-century London shipbuilding photographs from the Getty Archive. And then, between 2 and 7 November (noon - 8.00pm), there’s Sim Fine Art’s annual Holding the Line exhibition of museum-quality twentieth-century British wartime art.

This autumn also marks the publication of a new book by Sohemian Society stalwart, the novelist John King, who’ll be speaking at our 10 November London Classics Q-and-A, for which there are still a few tickets. Complete with the beguilingly odd title, Machine Elves Descending, John’s latest book contains a selection of brilliant new short stories, plus a long and engaging interview with him. More details of this imported American edition can be found by clicking this link: https://pmpress.org.uk/product/machine-elves-descending/

If you’re a fan of our friends at Talking Pictures TV, you may want to support them by registering online votes for them in the TV Choice 2027 Awards, at which they’ve been nominated in both the “Favourite Channel” and “Best Factual Show” categories. To vote, just click on this link: www.tvchoicemagazine.co.uk. Wouldn’t it be funny if Shedflix ends up defeating Netflix?

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11/10/2026

04/10/2026

Since it’s the first Sunday of a new month, the latest Radio Sohemia podcast has just gone online. It consists of a recording of the talk that Iain Sinclair gave for the Sohemian Society during the hottest of the summer heatwaves. In the unusual setting of the giant pontoon supporting the Victorian steamship, S.S. Robin, he reminisced about the walks that have been so central to his writing.

To get free access to this or any of the previous Radio Sohemia podcasts, which include guests such as Jonathan Meades, Dan Cruickshank and Robert Elms, just click on one of these links:

https://open.spotify.com/show/7v8RaoDrQRjS5HUDxb6Lfz

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-sohemia/id1798432565

While I think of it, we still have a few tickets left for both our 28 October Avant-Garde Artist in 1940s London event and our 10 November London Classics Q-and-A about rediscovering forgotten working-class London novels of the interwar period. One of our guests for the London Classics event will be John King, the bestselling author of The Football Factory. If you’d like to attend either of those events, just click on the following link: https://www.sohemiansociety.com/opening-page.

27/09/2026

Only five seats and four standing room tickets are left for our next Q-and-A – at 7.00pm on 28 October 2026. Billed as “An Avant-Garde Artist In 1940s London”, it’s a discussion with Jennifer Potter about her recent, deservedly praised book about Kurt Schwitters. If you’d like to join us there, please visit www.sohemiansociety.com and click the link that accompanies the event listing.

Tickets are also available for our London Classics event on the evening of 10 November. That features novelists-turned-publishers John King and Martin Knight talking about their quest to rediscover and great interwar working-class London novels. It’s a quest that’s led them to reissue forgotten masterpieces such as Arthu le Bern’s “It Always Rains On Sunday”.

20/09/2026

Tickets have just gone on sale for our Tuesday 10 November 7.00pm conversation between the John King and Martin Knight, novelists and co-owners of the independent publisher London Books. With characteristic wit and passion, they’ll be talking about their much-admired London Classics series, which specialises in the forgotten and marginalised tradition of working-class London fiction. So far they’ve reissued fourteen of these novels, including masterpieces such as It Always Rains on Sunday, which provided the basis for the Ealing Studios movie of the same title. To accompany each of their stylish little hardbacks, they’ve commissioned a new introduction by writers of the calibre of Jonathan Meades, Iain Sinclair, and Cathi Unsworth.

If you’d like to hear John and Martin’s discussion, just click on the following link: https://www.sohemiansociety.com/opening-page. Our website also offers you the chance to book your place at the Avant-Garde Artist in 1940s London Q-and-A, as well as Darren Coffield’s walking tour of the Soho haunts of boho wild woman Henrietta Moraes.

13/09/2026

There are still a few tickets left for our Q-and-A with Noel Cronin, who’ll be chatting about his days at Rank Films and then as a Soho-based film editor during the 1960s and 1970s. He will of course also be reminiscing about the birth of Talking Pictures TV. His conversation with Ross MacFarlane kicks off at 7.00pm on Wednesday 16 September. Click on the following link if you’d like to snap up some of the remaining tickets:

https://www.sohemiansociety.com/opening-page.

Next weekend, tickets will go on sale for our November Q-and-A, which’ll be about rediscovering forgotten interwar London novels and about the practicalities of the publishing world.

The arrival of autumn signals the end of the last of our programme of guided walks. If you fancy joining Ken Worpole for some tales of dockside bohemia and Darren Coffield for a stroll through Henrietta Moraes’s raucous Soho territory, a handful of tickets are still available for both events.

06/09/2026

The latest instalment of the Radio Sohemia podcast is a recording of Robert Elms’s conversation with Keiron Pim. If you’re even remotely interested in 1980s pop culture, I urge you to listen to it. Robert’s reminiscences of the influential nightclub, Blitz, were vivid and often hilarious. So far, he’s the only Sohemian Society guest who has demonstrated a dance-step.

The Q-and-A with Robert, which was co-promoted by Fitzrovia Noir, took place inside the giant pontoon supporting the Victorian steamship, Robin, moored at Trinity Buoy Wharf. Despite the best efforts of our post-production maestro, there’s still a slight echo on the recording which, as he pointed out, sometimes makes it sound as if Robert and Keiron are officiating at a Sunday church-service.

To get free access to this or any of the previous Radio Sohemia podcasts, just click on one of these links:

https://open.spotify.com/show/7v8RaoDrQRjS5HUDxb6Lfz

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-sohemia/id1798432565

Don’t forget, if you fancy joining us at the Q-and-As about Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Talking Pictures TV, or Kurt Schwitters, please follow the link below. There are also a few tickets left for the guided tours around Poplar and Henrietta Moraes’s Soho.

https://www.sohemiansociety.com/opening-page.

31/08/2026

On Wednesday 28 October at 7.00pm, the writer Jennifer Potter will be chatting with Sohemian Society co-founder Marc Glendening about the period when the avant-garde German émigré artist Kurt Schwitters lived in London. Jennifer’s the author of a tremendously enjoyable new book about Schwitters – a book that’s part memoir, part biography. It’s attracted well-deserved praise from Iain Sinclair, Jonathan Meades, and the art critic Andrew Lambirth who wrote: “One of the enduring purposes of art is to make sense of life. This intriguing book does just that.” Too true. I must confess that I’m not a fan of Schwitters’s work, yet I found “Looking For Mr Schwitters” charming and deeply touching.

Seats and standing room tickets to this event can be booked via the following link: https://www.sohemiansociety.com/opening-page

The Andrew Lownie event has sold out, but tickets are available for the Q-and-As with Noel Cronin (aka “Mr Talking Pictures TV”) and with Viktor Wynd, as well as for the “High Rise & Low Life” and “Soho’s Mistress of Mayhem” guided walks. The latter is hosted by the writer/artist Darren Coffield, creator of the late lamented Colony Room Green – a replica of Soho’s famous, long gone Colony Room club.

25/08/2026

On Tuesday 13 October at 7.00pm, the self-styled Viktor Wynd – writer, curator, and host of his “Gone With The Wynd” tours to Papua New Guinea – will be chatting with Ross MacFarlane about his Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Unnatural History. This is a rare opportunity to hear him speak about his collecting obsession, his love of cabinets of curiosities, and his disdain for mainstream museums.

To book a ticket for this or for any of our September events for which there are still places available (the Q-and-A with Noel Cronin, aka “Mr Talking Pictures TV”; the “High Rise & Low Life” guided walk, and “Soho’s Mistress of Mayhem” tour), you just need to click on the following link:

https://www.sohemiansociety.com/opening-page