Simon Drake's House of Magic

Do you believe in magic?  I do. In fact, I recently saw some pretty excellent magic at Simon Drake's House of Magic. Some of you may remember Simon Drake from his Channel 4 programme 'The Secret Cabaret', during the early 1990's. Simon Drake performs dark, mysterious, innovative magic and shocking illusions. He became a legend amongst Magicians, and even worked with Kate Bush, devising visuals and characters for her 1979 UK tour.

Simon Drake has been performing monthly public shows at his home since 1996. The House of Magic is a converted Victorian building situated in a secret location in South London.  So a friend and I went along to check it out and we weren't disappointed. I won't divulge the address as that's part of the mystery. In fact, there is a vintage car service who can arrange for you to be blindfolded for your journey, so you have no idea of your destination!

We arrived through the gate, straight into The Enchanted Garden, a pretty courtyard garden lit by fairylights and bathed in fog.  On closer inspection, I spotted several peculiar things including miniature stuffed birds in the trees, and a small graveyard.  An eerie seven foot tall butler greeted us, revealing the live head of a man on a silver dish.  

We hastily made our way inside and straight into the gothic interior of The Red Room and its welcoming candlelit bar where we got ourselves some wine and began to explore. There was so much to see and take in, including strange paintings, spooky paraphenalia, magical penny-slot games and the special Whispering Chair which you sit in, pop on some headphones and listen to your destiny unfold.

We then made our way upstairs to the Drawing Room. A wonderful room of faded glamour and chock-a-block with books, antiques and endless magical artefacts.  Elvis and Frank Sinatra blasted from the speakers whilst we sat in leather armchairs, enjoying our wine and taking in the curiousities. I particularly liked the framed photographs in the hallway of people from days gone by, which had a subtle hologram effect causing the images to change into something quite unexpected as you walked past.

Next stop was the Haunted Cellar with the wigged-butler and his lovely vampire assistant, Betty. Groups of 10 go down into the depths of the basement for a slightly tongue in cheek, amusingly scary tour of ghosts, cobwebs, coffins and things that go bump in the night.  Suitably frightened, we returned upstairs to take our seats for dinner.

Although you can buy show-only tickets, it's worth paying the extra to be seated at a prime table in front of the stage and enjoy the buffet dinner.  The food, although not exceptional, was tasty enough with lots of salads, quiches and Blackforest Gateau. We had an excellent table right at the front which we shared with a friendly bunch. It felt a bit like being at a Goth's wedding! During dinner, a couple of close-up magicians performed some amazing card tricks right under our nose. One of them asked me to write my name on a fiver, made it disappear and miraculously retrieved it from inside a fresh kiwi fruit. That's magic!

After dinner, it was finally time to see the man himself.  Simon Drake appeared on stage with his various sexy Morticia-esque assistants and did some truly mind-blowing acts, including decapitating a member of the audience's head; elevating himself a foot off the ground; producing hundreds of colourful flowers from a rolled piece of card, and suspending a lit candle in the air with no strings attached (which he proved by putting a metal ring all around it). Photography is not allowed when it comes to the show, hence no pictures here of Mr Drake in action. But believe me, it really was thrilling and mesmerising and confirms my belief that magic does exist.  True magic, haunting magic, sexy magic and retro magic - Simon Drake does it all. He is a brilliant illusionist with a terrific stage presence and a cheeky twinkle in his eye. I would love to meet him off stage and see what he's like in 'real life'.

I thoroughly enjoyed my night of magic and felt completely transported, only waking from the sense of hypnosis and back in reality once we found ourselves at the nearby tube station.  I would definitely return to the House of Magic and think a dark winter's evening would add to the magic even more.  Abracadabra!

House of Magic
Monthly dinner/show nights (tickets £45 - £85)
Available for exclusive hire
020 7735 4777
info@houseofmagic.co.uk