Home Seven Years of Alchemy

Seven Years of Alchemy

By Lee Harris

On April Fools Day in 1972, the Alchemy stall began trading in the indoor market at 253 Portobello Road. It came about and grew out of the needs of the alternative culture that spawned around Ladbroke Grove. It was a colourful time when nearly everyone you met had either just come back from India, or was about to embark on the overland journey. They had acquired a taste for Oriental and ethnic items such as incense, perfumed oils, balms and henna. Chillums from the East and sibsi’s from Morocco were the way you smoke dope, besides rolling a three skinned joint.

To me it has always been a sort of magical stall, reflecting the current of events and people that flow through the Portobello on a Saturday. At the tide of the great gurus you encountered beatific smiles and enlightened spirits, and everyone was into macrobiotics and the like. It was a period when the oriental root ginseng was eagerly sort after by a band of fervent devotees and out of alchemy came from the Emperor Ginseng Company, which sells ginseng and royal jelly to this day. At the end of our first year we put out the Alchemical Almanac and Handbook of Herbal Highs, which is now long out of print, and a year later the Guide to the East, an account of the overland journey to India and as the passing show unfolded we brought out the Brain Storm Commix series, which featured Bryan Talbot’s trilogy of the adventures of Chester P. Hakenbush, the psychedelic alchemist and out of this experience came the magazine you are now reading, Home Grown. In all we have now published over 130,000 copies over the years, which have been read by a great many more people, and have drifted to many a distant shore.

To think it all came out of a Saturday stall in the Portobello, out of the desires and wants, and the changing times of the god folk who passed through there over the years, stopping awhile to have a chat and buy a pipe or packet of skins. It is to all of you Alchemy says a big thank you for these seven years of Alchemy.

Here’s to the wisdom of the weed and the many strange and beautiful people I have met through it.

Stay high!

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Upsetter Magazine

Posted by Alchemy Culture Shop on May 4, 2012 in Books, Comics, Music & Films | 0 comments

Deluxe special edition of Upsetter Magazine Issue 1, a magazine on the great Lee Scratch Perry

Limited to 200 copies - Each copy is individually numbered -

Includes articles on Lee Scratch Perry in Studio One, The Ska Years, Upsetter News, Colour Photo Postcards

Discography 1963-68 & Original Perry art

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

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Herbal Haze 1g

Posted by Alchemy Culture Shop on Feb 19, 2012 in Incense, Smoking Accessories, Tobacco alternatives | 0 comments

Herbal Haze comes in packs of 1 gram and packs of 3 grams.

It is one hundred percent legal in the UK and worldwide.

Contains a mix of aromatic natural Potpourri extracts and essential oils.

Simply tear open the contents of the pack; store in a small bowl, let the smoking blend do it’s work and envelope the room and your senses!!

Rating: 7.1/10 (9 votes cast)

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Pure Hemp Small Shoulder Bag

Posted by Alchemy Culture Shop on Feb 11, 2012 in Clothes & accessories, Pure Hemp Bags | 0 comments

Dimensions: 18cm x 19cm

Hemp is known as one of the most durable and high quality natural fibers that exists and holds an extremely high tensile strength. It softens with time and yet remains hardwearing and long lasting, they keep their colour over time as fabrics from hemp dye well.

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

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