Welcome to the Victorian Underground Project

Many people still believe that psychedelia grew out of various counterculture movements of the 1960s. Today we hope to correct this misconception once and for all.

We know that psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin and DMT have been used for thousands of years all over the world. Here in England, magic mushrooms grow in the wild and have been foraged and harvested for centuries. During the Victorian times, drug laws were comparably nonexistent. This allowed polite society to buy and consume such mind-bending substances without fear of being arrested or ostracised or grounded by parents.

Far from the country deteriorating into a junkie dystopia, there was a profound respect and appreciation of drugs particularly among artists, musicians and other creative types.

Photograph #1 is of the obscure London based artist Sutherland Greene in his spectacular studio. As we can see, Mr Greene is tripping on a heroic dose of psilocybin and incapable of painting anything. However, once he came back down to Earth, he would frantically produce some ethereal paintings of his spiritual wanderings.

Photograph #2 is an example of the sort of painting Mr Greene did at art school before ever taking a magic mushroom. While still beautiful, it is quite simply ripped up and stuffed into the rubbish bin by the sorts of paintings he would go on to create after his first ride through the wilds of his enlightened imagination.

Photograph #3 through to photograph #7 documents Mr Greene’s artistic evolution as he spent his life ritualistically tripping on magic mushrooms and then painting his visions. Notice the warping effect and the colour schemes becoming more and more fantastical.

Photograph #8 is Mr Greene’s last known painting which is a self-portrait which he named ‘at one with all creatures’.