The moulds at the end of the corridor

Mould is a generic term for over 100,000 species of multicellular, filamentous fungi. In contrast to recent scholarship celebrating symbiotic human‐fungal relationships, this article examines how moulds expose the darker materialities of multispecies entanglement. Tracing contemporary concerns with mould in UK housing –‐ from the death of toddler Awaab Ishak to the emergence of specialist remediation markets – alongside the history of penicillin's discovery in London laboratories, the article shows how moulds reveal structures of inequality, austerity politics and ‘metabolic politics’: governmental attempts to manage and monetize the transformative capacities of nonhuman life. As climate change creates new conditions for mould species to thrive, these indoor fungi offer a critical entry point for rethinking anthropological approaches to human and nonhuman entanglements in a rapidly warming world.