Archived Events

• Upcoming
• Archived

London Fortean Society:
The Haunted Landscape: Witchcraft, Ritual and the Supernatural

It’s getting darker. Join us at Conway Hall as we explore the Haunted Landscape, our annual gathering of witchcraft, folklore, ghosts, and fairies from the British Isles. Speakers this year include James Canton, James Edward Frost, Jeremy Harte, Sandra Lawrence, Allyson Shaw and Francis Young.

Ethical Matters:
Ethical Matters in Time and Space: 60 Years of Doctor Who

In November 2023 Doctor Who will turn 60. Amongst the monsters, machines and Master the show has always asked questions about humanity and goodness. Join broadcaster and cultural historian Matthew Sweet alongside Christel Dee, author and presenter of Doctor Who: The Fan Show, as we celebrate The Doctor, their companions, and what may be the greatest show on, and off, Earth.

Being Human Festival:
Great and Good?

Who do we remember as ‘great’ and why? Join Clare Stainthorp and Madeline Goodall - two experts in the history of humanism and freethought - for discussion and hands-on activities at this family-friendly event, in which we will think together about notions of the ‘great and good’.

Ethical Matters:
Billy No Mates – Men, Loneliness and Friendship

Max Dickins quickly learned that that he wasn't the only man struggling with friendships. Countless studies have confirmed that men have fewer close friends than women and the problem gets worse the older men get. But what goes wrong?

National Secular Society:
Condoms, Sponges and Syringes: The 19th century pioneers of family planning

Bob Forder introduces the 19th century secularist and freethinking pioneers of family planning. This talk will accompany a unique display of documents from the National Secular Society's archive, associated with Charles Bradlaugh’s and Annie Besant’s 1877 trial for republishing the pioneering birth control pamphlet, Fruits of Philosophy.

Conway Hall Ethical Society Presents:

Ethical Matters:
Grassroots Protest – Activism from Below

Change begins from below. Join two grassroots activists as they describe their protests and outcomes of their campaigning. Leila Hassan is a British editor, activist and founding member of the Race Today Collective. Andy Worthington is an author, campaigner, commentator and public speaker.

Bloomsbury Festival:
Words from Elsewhere: Small Press Publishing

We welcome three radical and innovative small press publishers to discuss what inspired them to start, how they found their audience and how they keep going. This event is for anyone fascinated by books, publishing and interested in how to start their own small press.

Reweirding:
Spirit of Place: Landscape and Self

How does our own vision of the landscape reflect – and be affected by – art and literature? Authors Will Ashon and Dr Susan Owens explore, in conversation with artist Sarah Sparkes, what we see in the British landscape and how place and history shape us.

Conway Hall Ethical Society Presents:

Ethical Matters:
She Who Struggles – Revolutionary Women Who Shaped the World

Activists Sorcha Thomson and Marral Shamshiri reveal how women have contributed to revolutionary movements across the world in endless ways: as leaders, rebels, trailblazers, guerrillas, and writers.

London Fortean Society Presents:

Reweirding:
Being Human – How Our Biology Shaped Our History

How did haemophilia bring down the Russian royal family? And scurvy give rise to the Mafia? Lewis Dartnell explores how human biology has shaped relationships, societies, economies and wars across the globe - and considers how, importantly, it continues to challenge and define our progress.

Conway Hall Ethical Society Presents:

Ethical Matters:
Thinking in Pictures – Adventures in Trying to be Smart

Michael Blastland shows how pictures can help put ideas to the test, making them vivid, showing them in action. Using illustrations and photographs, this is a brilliant introduction to smart-thinking – how to use it and when to question it – for anyone trying to make sense of a puzzling world.

Conway Hall Ethical Society Presents:

Ethical Matters:
Free and Equal – What Would a Fair Society Look Like?

Taking a humane and egalitarian liberalism as his starting point, economist and philosopher Daniel Chandler builds a careful and ultimately irresistible case for a progressive agenda that would fundamentally reshape our societies for the better.

London Fortean Society Presents:

Reweirding:
Utopian Dreams on the Streets of London

For centuries London has been the capital of utopian thought. A city of fervent imaginings and courageous aspirations. Niall Kishtainy draws us into the imaginative worlds of Thomas More, the Diggers, William Morris, Extinction Rebellion protestors and the Reclaim The Streets protests.

Conway Hall Ethical Society Presents:

Ethical Matters:
Ethical Eating

Food is an ethical issue. Join the discussion with author of Avocado Anxiety, Louise Gray, alongside Ruth Westcott, Campaign Coordinator for Sustain, as we explore ethical questions about the impact of food on the planet: Is plant protein as good as meat? Is foraged food more nutritious? Could bees be the answer to using fewer chemicals?

Conway Hall Ethical Society Presents:

Ethical Matters:
CANCELLED: Hysterical – Exploring the Myth of Gendered Emotions

We regret that this event has been cancelled due to the speaker being unwell.