London Fortean Society

7.45pm Thursday 26 January 2017 This event is now sold out. Sorry if you did not get a ticket, we hope to run it another time. The Bell , 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train and Tube: Liverpool Street. Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East Facebook page   Cross Bones Garden of Remembrance by Garry Knight (Creative Commons) Every month, an iconoclastic group of Londoners gather at a site in Southwark known as Crossbones Graveyard to commemorate the souls of mediaeval prostitutes believed to be buried there – the “Winchester Geese”. This is a pilgrimage site for self-identified misfits, nonconformists and contemporary sex workers who leave memorials to the outcast dead. The ritual interpretation of the history of the site has struck a chord with many who feel alienated in present-day London. Oxford anthropologist Professor Sondra L Hausner looks at the historical practices of sex work, the relation of the Church to these professions, and their representation in the prese...

Witch! £5 plus booking fee ( Advance tickets ) Monday 23 January 2017 7.30pm Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions Facebook event page Gary Parsons will be discussing the documentaries made at the height of the British witchcraft revival in the early 70’s looking at how these films came into being within a cultural context and the reason for their sudden decline. The talk will be illustrated with clips from the films discussed. Gary Parsons is a MA Graduate in film from Goldsmiths College London and an independent filmmaker. £5 plus booking fee ( Advance tickets ) Monday 23 January 2017 7.30pm Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions Facebook event page

7.45pm Thursday24 November 2016 £4 / £2 concessions ( Advance tickets ) The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train and Tube: Liverpool Street. Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East Facebook page Nathalie Cohen works for the Thames Discovery Programme at MOLA, Museum of London Archaeology. Tonight she explores aspects of interaction with the River Thames over time, from prehistory through to the present day, by examining evidence recovered during archaeological investigations on the foreshore by the Thames Discovery Programme and others. 7.45pm Thursday24 November 2016 £4 / £2 concessions ( Advance tickets ) The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Train and Tube: Liverpool Street. Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate East Facebook page

£20 / £16 concessions plus booking fee ( Advance tickets ) Saturday 19 November 2016 10am - 5.30pm Conway Hall , 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL Tube: Holborn Directions Facebook event page Book stall by Newham Bookshop  and Strange Attractor . As the days darken the London Fortean Society explores the folklore, ghosts and curses of the British Isles with the one-day symposium The Haunted Landscape. Authors, experts and researchers discuss ghosts, strange beasts and magic. From a talking mongoose to soul birds, moving megaliths in the landscape to witch marks in old buildings; to fairy lore and ghosts. Join us at Conway Hall to learn that the green and pleasant land we abide in has a dark, strange and chilling other side. Whatever Happened to the Headless Ghost? Once the headless or Acephalous Ghost was a staple of stately home haunts, and now is never seen. Where might the idea have originated in British folklore? And why do we no longer need to se...