Underground Arts and Humanities Festival, King's College London

Sheltering in London in the Second World War

Wednesday 15 October, 6:30pm

Heavyweights Antony Beevor and Andrew Graham-Dixon, alongside rising star Lara Feigel, Senior English Lecturer and acclaimed author of The Love-charm of Bombs: Restless Lives in the Second World War, make this event sure to be a success. Expect an entertaining discussion of the history of London during the blitz.

Discussion: Gods underground in Roman London

Thursday 16 October, 7pm

60 years ago in 1954, a temple to the god Mithras was discovered near the Bank of England. Mithras presided over a secretive and complex cult that drew many followers. The panel, led by John Shepherd, the archaeologist who published the definitive volume on the 1954 excavation, will explore why the iconic site ought to be redisplayed in contemporary London.

Debate: Young Arab Voices

Friday 17 October, 6:30pm

The chaos unfolding across the Middle East over the last few years as a result of the Arab Spring has gripped the world. As the UK returns to Iraq, and the US attacks ISL in Syria, the region is once again at the forefront. One of the central aspects of the unrest has been the role of youth and social media in burgeoning underground movements. This debate, chaired by Professor Leila Simona Talani, will see debaters discuss the alternative solutions being developed by underground youth in the Arab Region.

Poetry & music: Forgiveness, Relationship & Reunion: Haydn & the Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross

Saturday 18 October, 5pm

In the beautiful King’s Chapel, designed by Gilbert Scott in 1864, the Endellion String Quartet, former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and poet Ruth Padel will offer a mixture of music, poetry and discussion themed around Christ’s last words.The event will see readings from Ruth Padel, introducing her new poetry sequence ‘Seven Words and an Earthquake’, as well as Rowan Williams, who will read his poem ‘Gethsemane’. The Endellion String Quartet will play Joseph Haydn’s string quartet Op. 51, commissioned in response to Christ’s Words, with Ruth Padel reading poems between each of Haydn’s movements.

Film screening: The Double

Sunday 19 October, 6pm

Though technically a companion piece to Crime & Punishment, The Double more than stands up on its own. The tale of a reserved, introverted man, Simon (Jesse Eisenberg), whose life is turned upside down by the appearance of a man who resembles him completely, James (also played by Eisenberg). Also starring Mia Wasikowska (of, among others, Alice in Wonderland fame) and directed by Brit Richard Ayoade, this discombobulating piece will give your Sunday a bit of extra oomph.

Panel discussion: Modernism Underground

Monday 20 October, 7pm

The advent of underground travel was an opportunity not missed by artists: the strangeness, the alien world, the sense of travelling through the bowels of the earth, all made for fertile ground. This discussion, led by Lara Feigel, sees Kevin Jackson, Adam Mars-Jones, and Ian Patterson focuses on the way in which modern art forms have been shaped by ideas of the subterranean.

Walking tours: Underground Medieval London 2

Tuesday 21 October, noon and 5pm

This second part of the Underground Medieval London series will take you through underground medieval London. Beginning in the 13th century crypt of St Etheldreda’s, where the saint’s severed hand is still kept, expect to be led through medieval inns, pubs, hidden crypts, while discovering the fascinating history of the Knight’s Templar.

Note: this tour takes place in St Etheldreda’s Church, 14 Ely Place, London EC1N 6RY

Concert: Choir of King’s College London

Wednesday 22 October, 6:30pm

An hour long concert by the acclaimed King’s College Choir in which they will perform music by William Byrd, a leading English composer of the 16th century, whose Catholicism estranged him from contemporary culture and politics. His music is replete with themes of exile.

Inaugural Lecture: Nirvana & the New Technologies: the suppression & renewal of meditation in Buddhist Southeast Asia

Thursday 23 October, 6:30pm

Tracing the story of meditation and how it was repressed as part of European military successes in Asia in the 19th century, Kate Crosby, Professor of Buddhist Studies at King’s College, will examine how traditional meditation in Southeast Asia went underground. Additionally, she will look at a new form of meditation, Vipassana, that arose in Burma within the same colonial context. Later this form of meditation would find its own way to influence Western culture as ‘Mindfulness’.

Guided tour: Aldwych Underground Station

Friday 24 October, 5pm

Opened in 1907, Aldwych station finally closed its doors to passengers in 1994. Now a star in its own right after featuring in films like V for Vendetta and Atonement, the station makes its own demands: there is no working lift, so be prepared to walk the 160 stairs down (and of course up) to the station. Also used as a public air raid shelter during the Second World War, Aldwych has a fascinating history and this walk represents a chance to see one of London’s famed ‘ghost stations’

Aldwych Underground Station, entrance on Surrey Street

Click here for full festival listings.