Swedenborg House

Swedenborg House Publisher | Bookshop | Museum | Library | Archive | Gallery | Event Space

Publisher | library | bookshop | Museum | Library | Archive | Event Space | Focused on the ideas & influence of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772).

John Flaxman (1755-1826) was a key figure in the early dissemination of Swedenborgian thought in London. Initially a mem...
04/06/2026

John Flaxman (1755-1826) was a key figure in the early dissemination of Swedenborgian thought in London. Initially a member of the Theosophical Society, in 1810 he became a founding member of the Swedenborg Society. He produced a series of memorable drawings inspired by passages of Swedenborg’s Arcana Caelestia, as well as numerous plaster friezes related to his reading of Conjugial Love. Image: Self Portrait of John Flaxman, John Flaxman, 1778 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

! The Swedish merchant Joachim Wretman (1705-1782) was Swedenborg’s friend and a purveyor of seeds and plants. In a let...
03/06/2026

! The Swedish merchant Joachim Wretman (1705-1782) was Swedenborg’s friend and a purveyor of seeds and plants. In a letter dated 10 Feb 1750, Wretman writes of sending melon seeds and flower bulbs from Amsterdam for Swedenborg’s garden in Stockholm. Image: Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) and a garlic plant (Allium triquetrum): flowering stems and bulbs. Coloured lithograph by W. G. Smith, c. 1863. Wellcome Collection.

2 June 1786: Birth of Charles Augustus Tulk (1786-1849). A founding member of the Swedenborg Society, Tulk was a key c...
02/06/2026

2 June 1786: Birth of Charles Augustus Tulk (1786-1849). A founding member of the Swedenborg Society, Tulk was a key conduit between the Society and various Romantic figures of the Age. His friends included Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Elizabeth and Robert Barrett-Browning. He was also an early patron to both William Blake and John Flaxman. Tulk was the author of an article on Blake from 1830 that appeared in London University Magazine, possibly the first text ever written in praise of Blake’s genius. Image: ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge illustrations by Gustave Doré.

! Philosopher, theologian, visionary, scientist and statesman Emanuel Swedenborg was partial to a semla (cardamom bun f...
01/06/2026

! Philosopher, theologian, visionary, scientist and statesman Emanuel Swedenborg was partial to a semla (cardamom bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream) soaked in warm milk!

DON'T MISS! Our current exhibition 'THE EVERYWORLD - Redux' is open Monday - Friday 10.30am-5pm until Friday 5 June 2026...
01/06/2026

DON'T MISS! Our current exhibition 'THE EVERYWORLD - Redux' is open Monday - Friday 10.30am-5pm until Friday 5 June 2026.

Described as 'an exuberant kaleidoscope of visions, snippets, memories and collisions', 'THE EVERYWORLD - Redux' by Andrew and Eden Kötting is a multimedia exhibition encompassing immersive virtual reality, monumental inflatables of lost relatives, evocative moving-image works and intricately detailed sketchbooks. 'THE EVERYWORLD - Redux' is a reworking of the installation from the Undershed Gallery in Bristol, which ran from January until April 2026.

https://www.swedenborg.org.uk/events/the-everyworld-redux/

31 May 1819: Birth of Walt Whitman (1819-1892). A leading American poet of the nineteenth century, Whitman was profoun...
31/05/2026

31 May 1819: Birth of Walt Whitman (1819-1892). A leading American poet of the nineteenth century, Whitman was profoundly influenced by the work of Emerson. He was also influenced by Swedenborg who, he wrote, will probably ‘make the deepest and broadest mark upon the religions of future ages here, of any man that ever walked the earth.’ It has recently been argued that his most famous work, Leaves of Grass, was deeply influenced by Swedenborg’s doctrine of correspondences. Image: Peace and Plenty, George Inness, 1865, The Met.

30 May 1864: Robert Browning’s Dramatis Personæ was published. The collection was written after a nine-year hiatus and...
30/05/2026

30 May 1864: Robert Browning’s Dramatis Personæ was published. The collection was written after a nine-year hiatus and upon returning to England after the death of his wife, the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. These poems are darker than his previous collection, ‘Men and Women’, and can be seen as a turning point in his writing, focusing more on the subjects of religion and marital distress. Strong influences from Swedenborg’s religious teachings may be found in many poems in the volumes Men and Women (1855), Dramatis Personae (1864) and The Ring and the Book (1868/69). Image: Clasped Hands of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Harriet Goodhue Hosmer, 1853, National Gallery of Art.

! Please join us at Swedenborg House on Tuesday 14 July 6.30pm-9pm (doors open 6pm) for 'UK PREMIERE: ‘OUTRIDER’ WITH Q...
29/05/2026

! Please join us at Swedenborg House on Tuesday 14 July 6.30pm-9pm (doors open 6pm) for 'UK PREMIERE: ‘OUTRIDER’ WITH Q&A'.

As part of the Allen Ginsberg at 100 celebrations, curated and produced by Jesse Goodman and Peter Hale in collaboration with the Allen Ginsberg Estate, The Bureau of Lost Culture and the Southbank Centre, Swedenborg House is delighted to host the UK premiere of 'Outrider' (2025, 1 hr 41 mins), dir. Alystyre Julian, executive producer Martin Scorsese.

'Outrider' explores the experimental "Outrider" poet Anne Waldman’s life and practice. Waldman was a close friend and associate of Ginsberg, co-founding the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics with Ginsberg and Diane di Prima in 1974. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Anne Waldman, Alystyre Julian and Stephen Coates.

FREE (£5 admin fee). BOOKING ESSENTIAL: https://www.swedenborg.org.uk/events/uk-premiere-outrider-2025-1hr-41mins-with-panel-discussion/

Image: “Anne Waldman, Union Square Warhol Factory” — photo by Gerard Malanga, 1970.

Allen Ginsberg
Southbank Centre
Bureau of Lost Culture

28 May 1877: Birth of Oscar V de Lubicz Milosz (1877-1939). Lithuanian diplomat and French poet, he was one of the las...
28/05/2026

28 May 1877: Birth of Oscar V de Lubicz Milosz (1877-1939). Lithuanian diplomat and French poet, he was one of the last great hermetic thinkers of the twentieth century. A student of Swedenborg, Blake, Goethe, Dante and the western esoteric tradition, he brought the insights of hermetic wisdom to his poetic vision. Image: Copy A, plate 21: design excerpted from 'The First Book of Urizen', 1794, William Blake, © The Trustees of the British Museum.

Address

Swedenborg House, 20 Bloomsbury Way
London
WC1A2TH

Opening Hours

Monday 9:30am - 5pm
Tuesday 9:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 9:30am - 5pm
Thursday 9:30am - 5pm
Friday 9:30am - 5pm

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+442074057986

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