On 18 th August 1782, William Blake, prophet of Romanticism, married Catherine Boucher, at St Mary’s Church in Battersea. Their courtship was short, and apparently sealed when Blake regaled Boucher with a story of a previous spurned engagement. He asked if she pitied him, and she did. He then, taking pity as a sign from above, declared his love for her. Boucher inspired Blake, and his devotion to her was steadfast 1 . In the years that followed, Blake painted and wrote; whilst all around him, the industrial revolution forged a new world from blood, sweat and pig iron. The Albion Flour Mills, in Southwark, were a short distance away from Blake, and burned down in 1791. This sight, but also his belief that the factories, mills, and collieries of the early 19 th century represented an enslavement of humanity; inspired him. And was Jerusalem builded here, amongst these dark Satanic Mills? 150 years on from Blake and Boucher’s marriage, a second temple was being erected on the banks o...