THE CRYPT GALLERY & MAKE POETRY WEIRD AGAIN PRESENT
HOLD SPACE POETRY FESTIVAL: FROM THE DEPTHS
1 to 5 October 2026
The Crypt Gallery, 165 Euston Road, London NW1 2BA
Part of Bloomsbury Festival 2026, its 20th anniversary year
From the depths, we came together to make poetry.
Last Holy Week sixteen poets held space in a crypt beneath London. Seven nights. They stayed, they listened, they made something together that had no name until it was over.
Now we come back down.
To feel alive again.
To prepare for the wisdom of winter.
This ticket is your day pass to the crypt, 10am to 6pm, on any day of the festival.You dont need it but by donating you help pay the poets!
WHAT IS HAPPENING DOWN THERE
Twelve resident poets have the run of the space for five days. They are writing in it, recording in it, and performing work in the evening that did not exist that morning. The residency is not a retreat. It is an exposure.
Prompts are given daily. Bring a notebook and the stone will do the rest.
A collective zine is built page by page across the week, risograph printed in two colours, and given away free at the closing on Monday 5 October.
The podcast records live in the crypt through the week.
WORKSHOPS
Each one is a separate ticket, most of them pay what you can. Book individually. They are small and they fill.
Thu 1 Oct · Penance Poetry Workshop
Thu 1 Oct · The Sacred Space Within
Fri 2 Oct · Rediscovering Joy In A Crypt
Sat 3 Oct · Trash Fire Poetry: Writing From The Ashes
Sat 3 Oct · Disasterpieces
Sun 4 Oct · Protest Poetry: Defamiliarising Violence
Sun 4 Oct · Saying The Unsayable
Mon 5 Oct · Penance Poetry Workshop
Mon 5 Oct · Stevie's Scary Stories Sharing Circle
THE OPEN MIC
Every evening, in the crypt, on its own separate ticket. Two featured poets from the residency open the night, then the floor goes to fourteen. Sign up is limited because we want to hold the space properly for every person who reads.
Come to listen. Come to share. Come sober. Come as you are.
SATURDAY 3 OCTOBER: THE GATHERING
Neil Bartlett OBE premieres new work upstairs in St Pancras New Church. He will not stand there alone. St Pancras is a church carried on caryatids, stone figures holding the roof up with their own bodies, so we are giving him sixteen queer poets and four musicians of his own. The work of one of our elders, borne on the shoulders of the ones who came after because of him.
Separate ticket, pay what you can up to £10.
WHY BUY A DAY TICKET
To be in the room. To keep us going, because this festival is crowdfunded and the crypt is not free. To remind yourself that there is poetry to be made and it is in your veins. Because something is calling you from the depths.
Come make poems. Come speak poems. Come find poetry.
BEFORE YOU COME
The Crypt Gallery is reached by a staircase and there is no step free access. If stairs are difficult for you, talk to us before you book and we will be honest about what the building can and cannot do.
It is underground and stone built and it is genuinely cold, even in October. Bring layers and plan to keep them on.
It is consecrated ground, and the remains of 557 people are still down there. We do not pretend otherwise.
Treat them the way you would want yours treated.
Access needs, questions, anything at all: nols@makepoetryweirdagain.com