Witch Patterson
<p>In 1894, when Spare was seven, the family moved from Smithfield to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennington" title="Kennington">Kennington</a>, South London, setting up home at 15 Kennington Park Gardens. Here, Spare attended St. Agnes School, attached to a prominent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Anglican" class="mw-redirect" title="High Anglican">High Anglican</a> church, and as a child he was brought up within the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglicanism" title="Anglicanism">Anglican</a> denomination of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity" title="Christianity">Christianity</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Osman_Spare#cite_note-7">[7]</a></sup> In later life he claimed to have met an elderly woman, Mrs Patterson (known as "Witch Patterson") at this time. Patterson claimed to be a descended from a line of Salem witches that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_Mather" title="Cotton Mather">Cotton Mather</a> had failed to extirpate.<sup id="cite_ref-Richard_Cavendish_p.224_8-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Osman_Spare#cite_note-Richard_Cavendish_p.224-8">[8]</a></sup> She seduced him and first taught him how to practice <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic(paranormal)" title="Magic (paranormal)">magic</a>, although later biographer Phil Baker has noted that there is "very little evidence" that she was ever a real figure, instead perhaps being a later fictional invention of his.<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Osman_Spare#cite_note-9">[9]</a></sup> Spare, who did not get on well with his real mother as a child, referred to Patterson as his 'second mother' or 'witch-mother'.<sup id="cite_ref-Richard_Cavendish_p.224_8-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Osman_Spare#cite_note-Richard_Cavendish_p._224-8">[8]</a></sup> Taking an interest in drawing, from about the age of 12, he began taking evening classes at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambeth_School_of_Art" title="Lambeth School of Art">Lambeth School of Art</a> under the tutorship of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Connard" title="Philip Connard">Philip Connard</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Osman_Spare#cite_note-10">[</a></sup></p>