Events
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‘Blakemas’ Programme 2025
November/December
BLAKE EVENTS as part of William Blake Birthday celebrations and
Mount Street Gardens Christmas Festival 2025
at
Mayfair Library
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER:
OUR NEIGHBOUR WILLIAM BLAKE TALK Residents Society of Mayfair and St James's with William Blake Fellowship
FRIDAY 28 NOVEMBER:
MEDITATE WITH BLAKE – Free Meditation Sahaja Yoga with Mayfair Library
SUNDAY 30 NOVEMBER:
BLAKE BIRTHDAY WALK – Simon Clarke, William Blake Fellowship
WEDNESDAY 3rd DECEMBER:
PRINTING IN THE INFERNAL METHOD - talk by William Blake expert Michael Phillips
TUESDAY 16 DECEMBER:
BLAKE INSPIRED PAINTING WORKSHOP 8-12yrs - Artist, Prasad Beaven
For further details scroll down....
November 2025
WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER
The Residents’ Society of Mayfair and St James’s presents an illustrated talk:
‘OUR NEIGHBOUR WILLIAM BLAKE’
by Catherine Kelly, Chair of the William Blake Fellowship.
Location: Mayfair Library, 25 South Audley Street.
Time:
5.30pm - 6pm Arrival
6pm - 7pm Talk and Q&A followed by refreshments and social.
William and Catherine Blake lived in two small rooms on the first floor of 17 South Molton Street for 17 years. Here, they created and published his most renowned illuminated masterpieces, including ‘Jerusalem’.
Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake’s work now resides in private collections and galleries worldwide. But, above all, he was a Londoner—and our neighbour!
“The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship”
William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
NOTE: Invitation open to Members of The Residents Society of Mayfair and St. James's and all interested in membership.
Please RSVP to: Events@RSMSJ.com
Subject: RSVP RSMSJ Event:
"Our Neighbour William Blake" Talk - (Your Name)
FRIDAY 28 NOVEMBER
Sahaja Yoga Free Meditation with the William Blake Fellowship and Mayfair Library presents:
‘MEDITATE WITH BLAKE’: William Blake - Poet, Artist and Visionary.
“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite.”
William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Location: Mayfair Library Upstairs. 25 South Audley Street.
5.30pm Arrival
5.45pm – 45mins guided meditation, plus musical performance and refreshments
To celebrate William Blake's birthday, the weekly free Friday Mayfair meditation, Sahaja Yoga, will host a special session to explore and experience the potential of William Blake’s art and prophecies.
Participants sit comfortably in chairs throughout the session, although some prefer the floor—no exercises, mats, or special clothing required. The aim is to achieve a thoughtless, calm state of being effortlessly and naturally, to remove the ‘mind-forged manacles’ as often depicted by William Blake in his works.
Meditation is a state of mental silence or rest, in which our attention is aware but not engrossed in thinking. It is known as ‘thoughtless awareness’ through self-realisation.
No need to book - just come along.
SUNDAY 30 NOVEMBER
William Blake Fellowship Golden String Guided Walks presents our annual:
BLAKE BIRTHDAY WALK with Simon Clarke
Celebrating the 268th Birthday of William Blake.
Broadwick Street to South Audley Street - 0.7 miles: 2,000 steps
Time: Meet 2pm – Walk: 90mins approx.
Followed by a Blake birthday tea party, birthday cake, readings and music in honour of William Blake at Mayfair Library, 25 South Audley Street.
Two days after Blake’s birthday, we will meet at 2pm, outside the residential block, William Blake House, at the site of William Blake’s birth: Broadwick Street W1.
After introductions and readings, we will make our way via Great Marlborough Street across Regent Street to Hanover Square and so into Mayfair, stopping along the way to illustrate scenes and events from Blake’s life.
We will reflect on London then and now, commenting on important landmarks along the way. For example, on Brook Street we will stop at number 25, the Handel Hendrix House, to deliver greetings to Jimi Hendrix whose birthday is the day before William’s.
We will then take a short but important detour to 17 South Molton Street, where Wiliam and Catherine Blake lived between 1803- 1820.
Then it’s on to South Audley Street, where we will gather at the Mayfair Library for more readings, music and birthday cake in William’s honour.
NOTE: Walking Group numbers are limited – please BOOK:
williamblakefellowship@mail.com
Subject: ‘BLAKE BIRTHDAY WALK’
The Walk and Birthday Party are free, but Donations are welcome.
December 2025
WEDNESDAY 3rd DECEMBER
Grosvenor is proud to sponsor this event - an informal talk by world-renowned Blake expert Michael Phillips.
WILLIAM BLAKE: PRINTING IN THE INFERNAL METHOD
The production of Blake’s books in “Illuminated" Printing.
A talk by William Blake expert Michael Phillips
But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul, is to be expunged; this I shall do, by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid
If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.
Plate 14, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1793
Location: Mayfair Library
Time: 6.30pm – 8pm
MICHAEL PHILLIPS is an internationally recognised scholar of William Blake. For more than 30 years he has researched the materials and methods that William Blake used to produce his illuminated books.
Michael will reveal the secrets of Blake’s ‘Illuminated Printing’ technique. providing fascinating insight into the method Blake invented of printing word and image together from a single copper plate that he described as “Illuminated Printing” and that he then used to produce his books such as the Songs of Innocence and of Experience and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.
The talk will be illustrated and Michael will bring examples of exact replica relief - etched copper plates and printed impressions from Blake’s books in ‘Illuminated Printing.’
Available by PRE-ORDER at a discount of 33% will be exact replica impressions of ‘The Land’ from Songs of Innocence and ‘The Tyger’ from Songs of Experience, each £60 (normally £90 including shipping) and of Blake’s most famous image known as ‘The Ancient of Days’, the Frontispiece to Europe a Prophecy, £150 (normally £250 including shipping).
Plate 14 from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell quoted above is also available to order price £90 (normally £150 including shipping). See examples attached.
The price includes mounting in off-white acid-free board in readiness for framing. All orders will be printed specially and therefore must be received not later than Wednesday, 26 November, for delivery at the talk.
NB. Like Blake’s original impressions no two are nor can be exactly the same, each is unique.
Orders should be placed by emailing Michael Phillips at:
Michael Phillips has taught at Oxford, UCL, Edinburgh and York universities and been the recipient of numerous awards for his work on Blake. He was guest curator of the major William Blake exhibitions at Tate Britain, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Petit Palais in Paris, and, most recently, at the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford. His work recreating Blake’s illuminated books may be seen on his website: https://www.williamblakeprints.co.uk/
REPLICA BLAKE PRINTS AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER BY 26 NOVEMBER FOR DELIVERY AT THE TALK ON WEDNESDAY 3 DECEMBER 2025
To pre-order the print of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 14, £90 (normally £150 including shipping) is £90.
The Lamb, Songs of Innocence, 1789, special price £60 each mounted.
TUESDAY 16 DEC
BLAKE INSPIRED PAINTING WORKSHOP - Award winning artist Prasad Beaven
William Blake Fellowship, in partnership with Mayfair Library, presents William Blake for younger generations!
“The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself.”
William Blake
INSPIRING BLAKE – A PAINTING WORKSHOP with Prasad Beaven MA RA
Age group: 8-12years
Time: 3.30 pm- 5.15pm
Location: Mayfair Library Upstairs.
Numbers are limited to please book to avoid disappointment:
A creative workshop for ages 8–12 with artist Prasad Beaven, inspired by the art and poetry of William Blake. Children will experiment with marbling, mark-making, and imaginative drawing to explore colour, pattern, and the power of imagination.
PRASAD BEAVEN is a visual artist whose practice explores inner and outer landscapes through spiritual and intuitive processes. A graduate of the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts (MA, 2021) and the University of Brighton (BA Illustration, 2017), he works primarily in water-based media, combining ink marbling with drawing and painting. He has exhibited internationally, including a solo presentation at the Saatchi Gallery, and he is the recipient of the Ciclitira Prize (2021), presented by HRH King Charles III.
BOOKING – Numbers are limited. Please book on this email:
williamblakefellowship@mail.com
Subject: ‘BLAKE PAINTING WORKSHOP’
The event is FREE, but Donations are welcome.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
CATHERINE KELLY
William Blake Fellowship
Email: wiliiamblakefellowship@mail.com
https://www.williamblakefellowship.com
CHARLENE COLEMAN
Library Officer
Mayfair Library
25 South Audley Street Mayfair London W1K 2PB
Email: mayfairlibrary@westminster.gov.uk
0207 641 6200
https://www.westminster.gov.uk/leisure-libraries-and-community/libraries/mayfair-library
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