Event Type: Talk

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture. Tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Chocolate Absinthe. Doors open at 6:30pm and talk starts at 7pm

Creatures of the Night: Sexuality, the Unconscious, and the Archetypal Vampire with Katie Evans

Our fascination with vamps has endured through the oceans of time, evolving into a key element of pop culture and leaving a lasting mark on our collective consciousness. Jungian archetypes to modern representations of narcissism, these creatures often embody the darker sides of our psyche. We’ll trace their evolution on TV and film, through Dracula and Nosferatu to Lost Boys and our beloved Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In this talk, we’ll explore why we both fear and love vampires, and how their stories resonate with us on a personal level. We’ll examine how these creatures have been used as a symbol in cinema to represent sexuality, otherness, internal struggles, and the complexities that many of us face as humans. By applying psychoanalysis, and a lens of gender and sexuality, we’ll dig deep into the vampiric legend—both on screen and in the mind.

Katie Evans is a private practice therapist and self-confessed horror nerd, giving lectures across the UK and Ireland on topics such as the psychology of horror movies, sexuality in horror and vampires. Her passion for all things spooky began in childhood and continued through her studies in music, film, and media at Liverpool University, before moving into the field of mental health. She holds advanced accreditation in GSRD Therapy (Gender, Sexuality, and Relationship Diversity) and is a BACP-accredited therapist. Katie has presented at conferences across Europe and has spoken for organizations including The Maudsley, the British Psychological Society, The NHS, LGBT Foundation, and HMPPS, among others. She is also a registered guest lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University. An advocate for using pop culture in psychotherapy, Katie previously hosted The Mental Health Monsters Podcast and continues to explore how fictional narratives—especially those from the horror genre—can help us better understand ourselves and the world that we live in.

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Devil’s Botany is the UK’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour. Celebrating spirit’s connection to art, literature, magic & mixology, Devil’s Botany is unleashing the future of absinthe with bold expressions for the adventurous drinkers of today.

The venue opens at 18:30. Doors will close at 19:00 to avoid disrupting the speaker. We kindly ask that all guests arrive before 19:00. Refunds are not possible for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances.

The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society is London’s best award-winning alternative cocktail bar hidden within The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. A drinker’s cabinet of wonder filled curious cocktails & extraordinary elixirs —The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour is truly a hidden treasure of East London. Opened by collectors, drinks historians & absinthe experts — Allison Crawbuck (Brooklyn) & Rhys Everett (London) in 2016, the duo bring with them a shared passion for the mysterious world of spirits & the macabre.

 

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture. Tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Chocolate Absinthe. Doors open at 6:30pm and talk starts at 7pm

A Consensus of Symbols: Patterns in Ritual Building Protection with Wayne Perkins

Published in June 2026 by Aeon Books

Join author Wayne Perkins at The Last Tuesday Society for an illustration exploration of magical ritual artefacts in the ancient buildings of Britain.

Built on nearly four decades of research, this fascinating anthology is a vital guide to understanding the ways in which British householders used magic and ritual to protect their homes from perceived or spiritual threats.

Exploring both symbols (such as graffiti) and deposits (such as concealed objects), A Consensus of Symbols is an essential text that unravels many of the mysteries which have shrouded the academic discourse surrounding ritual building protection: who created the ritual markings? What concerns and intentions lay behind this use of ritual? Was magic intentionally evoked through these symbols and deposits, or were they simply ‘good luck’ charms?

Answering these questions and more, Wayne Perkins begins the book with a discussion on the socio-economic, political, and cultural contexts of the ritual building phenomena. This is followed by useful exploration of the supernatural beliefs which permeated the Early Modern Period, including a brief outline of the Laws of Sympathetic Magic.

The research includes intriguing and engaging observations on apotropaic graffiti; ritual taper burn marks; deliberately concealed old boots and shoes; spiritual ‘middens’ or caches; dried, mummified and smoked cats; witch bottles; and much more!

A Consensus of Symbols is not only a clear and accessible guide to understanding the strange and engrossing world of ritual building protection, but it will also empower both the individual and the local history groups to undertake historical and archaeological surveys of their own.

Author Biography

The author is an archaeologist with more than twenty-two years of experience who undertook his degree in archaeology at the University of Birmingham. He began his career as a field archaeologist with Oxford Archaeology.

Anticipating a career in France he volunteered on excavations for Poitiers and Rennes University respectively. In due course he worked for France’s premier scientific organisation, I.N.R.A.P. (Institut Nationale des Récherches Archéologiques Préventives) for five years.

Returning to the UK in 2013, he has since been undertaking historic building surveys and has supervised urban excavations in Greater London. He is currently overseeing rural excavations in the surrounding counties of Sussex, Surrey, and Kent. He has been published in a number of archaeological journals and periodicals.

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The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society is London’s best award-winning alternative cocktail bar hidden within The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. A drinker’s cabinet of wonder filled curious cocktails & extraordinary elixirs —The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour is truly a hidden treasure of East London. Opened by collectors, drinks historians & absinthe experts — Allison Crawbuck (Brooklyn) & Rhys Everett (London) in 2016, the duo bring with them a shared passion for the mysterious world of spirits & the macabre.

—————————————-

Devil’s Botany is the UK’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour. Celebrating spirit’s connection to art, literature, magic & mixology, Devil’s Botany is unleashing the future of absinthe with bold expressions for the adventurous drinkers of today.

The venue opens at 18:30. Doors will close at 19:00 to avoid disrupting the speaker. We kindly ask that all guests arrive before 19:00. Refunds are not possible for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances.

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture. Tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Chocolate Absinthe. Doors open at 6:30pm and talk starts at 7pm

The British Cemetery with Dr Roger Bowdler

Cemeteries replaced overfilled urban graveyards in the late Georgian period and flourished under the Victorians. The gloomy business of body disposal gave way to landscapes celebrating the dead. This talk looks at some of the stranger monuments which were erected, ranging from the grandest bronze statues to great big lumps of raw granite; from abstract sculptures by Barbara Hepworth to a weird marble Druid.

With Brent Elliott, Roger Bowdler has written the biggest survey of British cemeteries published to date. There are acres and acres of mass-produced tombstones but every so often something strange comes along. These discoveries will be shared and spirits lifted in an illustrated talk celebrating these gardens for the dead.

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The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society is London’s best award-winning alternative cocktail bar hidden within The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. A drinker’s cabinet of wonder filled curious cocktails & extraordinary elixirs —The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour is truly a hidden treasure of East London. Opened by collectors, drinks historians & absinthe experts — Allison Crawbuck (Brooklyn) & Rhys Everett (London) in 2016, the duo bring with them a shared passion for the mysterious world of spirits & the macabre.

—————————————-

Devil’s Botany is the UK’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour. Celebrating spirit’s connection to art, literature, magic & mixology, Devil’s Botany is unleashing the future of absinthe with bold expressions for the adventurous drinkers of today.

The venue opens at 18:30. Doors will close at 19:00 to avoid disrupting the speaker. We kindly ask that all guests arrive before 19:00. Refunds are not possible for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances.

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture. Tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Chocolate Absinthe. Doors open at 6:30pm and talk starts at 7pm

Magick: Decoding the Visual Culture of Sorcery, Illusion and the Paranormal with Thomas Waters

Join Thomas Waters for an illustrated talk to celebrate the publication of his new book Magick: Decoding the visual culture of sorcery, illusion and the paranormal.Combining powerful imagery of artworks and ritual objects with insightful analysis and expertly written text, Magick tells the visual story of the magical arts.

Magic appears in every era and culture, from 30,000-year-old wands unearthed in Wales to talismanic daggers of India and the horseshoe charms still worn across Europe. This eye-opening book explores the rich visual and material culture of magic in all its diversity and power, from personal superstitions and protective marks to cunning folk, enchanted grottoes, mystical spellbooks and secret ceremonies.

After a concise introduction that outlines what we mean by ‘magic’, the author investigates the magical arts in three broad sections: Low Magic, High Magic and Alternative Magic. Each section reveals not only the practices themselves but how magicians and ritual specialists have shaped society across time.

Spellbinding images of grimoires, spirit beings, esoteric diagrams and evocative artefacts amulets, crystals, magic mirrors and more bring these traditions to life, their symbolism decoded in vivid detail. Key magicians, rituals and enchanted landscapes are also profiled.

Readers will discover how everyday magic worked in pre-industrial Europe, what a visit to a cunning-woman or wise-man entailed, and how mesmerists, mediums and other modern practitioners forged new magical traditions. Wide-ranging and accessible, this book traces the evolution of magic from ancient worlds through the ages of science and technology to today’s landscape of intuition, doublethink and conspiracy.

Thomas Waters is a lecturer in History at Imperial College London and author of Cursed Britain: A History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times (2019) along with numerous articles about the history of witchcraft and magic. He read History at the University of Leeds and Oxford, and has been researching and teaching about the history of magic for over twenty years in universities and the wider community.

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The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society is London’s best award-winning alternative cocktail bar hidden within The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. A drinker’s cabinet of wonder filled curious cocktails & extraordinary elixirs —The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour is truly a hidden treasure of East London. Opened by collectors, drinks historians & absinthe experts — Allison Crawbuck (Brooklyn) & Rhys Everett (London) in 2016, the duo bring with them a shared passion for the mysterious world of spirits & the macabre.

—————————————-

Devil’s Botany is the UK’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour. Celebrating spirit’s connection to art, literature, magic & mixology, Devil’s Botany is unleashing the future of absinthe with bold expressions for the adventurous drinkers of today.

The venue opens at 18:30. Doors will close at 19:00 to avoid disrupting the speaker. We kindly ask that all guests arrive before 19:00. Refunds are not possible for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances.

Horror Movies and Psychology with Katie Evans

Whether you’re just beginning to peek into the shadows of the horror genre or you’ve been a lifelong fan, many of us are drawn to horror for reasons we don’t fully understand. What is it about these films that we love and how do they unsettle us so deeply.

Join spooky psychotherapist Katie Evans for a fascinating exploration of how horror movies tap into our core human fears, make use of our psychological makeup, and can even help us confront the darkest parts of ourselves. This talk delves beneath the surface of jump scares and gore to uncover the psychoanalytic ideas that underpin many of our favourite horror films.

Together we will exploring how horror tropes and characters act as mirrors to the self, and how these stories allow us to safely explore thoughts and feelings we might otherwise avoid bringing into the light.

Katie Evans is a private practice therapist and self-confessed horror nerd, giving lectures across the UK and Ireland on topics such as the psychology of horror movies, sexuality in horror and vampires. Her passion for all things spooky began in childhood and continued through her studies in music, film, and media at Liverpool University, before moving into the field of mental health. She holds advanced accreditation in GSRD Therapy (Gender, Sexuality, and Relationship Diversity) and is a BACP-accredited therapist. Katie has presented at conferences across Europe and has spoken for organizations including The Maudsley, the British Psychological Society, The NHS, LGBT Foundation, and HMPPS, among others. She is also a registered guest lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University. An advocate for using pop culture in psychotherapy, Katie previously hosted The Mental Health Monsters Podcast and continues to explore how fictional narratives—especially those from the horror genre—can help us better understand ourselves and the world that we live in.

Devil’s Botany is the UK’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour. Celebrating spirit’s connection to art, literature, magic & mixology, Devil’s Botany is unleashing the future of absinthe with bold expressions for the adventurous drinkers of today.

The venue opens at 18:30. Doors will close at 19:00 to avoid disrupting the speaker. We kindly ask that all guests arrive before 19:00. Refunds are not possible for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances.

 

 

 

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture. Tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Chocolate Absinthe. Doors open at 6:30pm and talk starts at 7pm

Undertakers and Death: A Merry Dance with Dr Dan O’Brien

Join us at The Last Tuesday Society for an illustrated talk with Dr Dan O’Brien exploring the imagined world of the early undertaker and some of the most striking depictions of the undertakers’ relationship with death. Death historian Dr Dan O’Brien describes how the fortunes and misfortunes of the undertaker were window on popular ideas about death and the new trade that benefited from it.

An eighteenth-century cartoon imagined a dainty dance between Death and undertaker; the sable-clad death worker was amusingly uncomfortable with his scowling partner. In this busy century, the relationship between undertakers and death was imagined as an uneasy alliance. The early trade’s dependence on death was often caricatured with the gloomy undertaker joined by the familiar skeleton of the memento mori. Death brought joy to the undertaker but this mortal fellow was not invulnerable to its approach and nor could rely upon inevitability of death.

Dr Dan O’Brien

Death historian Dr Dan O’Brien is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath. Dan’s research primarily focuses on the development of the undertaking trade and its products in the eighteenth century. He seeks to understand how the undertakers and their goods were perceived by society, by analysing how funerals were presented in the popular culture of the period. Drawing upon an eclectic range of source materials has enabled him to consider simple, but often overlooked, questions about how people’s knowledge about the early trade was formed. His research has produced four chapters, two of which are now published with Routledge and University of Bristol Press. Dan also talks publicly to a wide range of audiences on different themes in mortality history such as funerary gifts, sea burial and mourning jewellery. He has recently appeared on History Hit’s After Dark podcast talking about the funeral of Queen Victoria and describing a funerary crime on Killing Time with Rebecca Rideal.

Dr Dan O’Brien Social Media Links:
TikTok : tiktok.com/@dr.dan.o
Instagram: Instagram.com/dr.dan.o
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/drdan.bsky.social

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The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society is London’s best award-winning alternative cocktail bar hidden within The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. A drinker’s cabinet of wonder filled curious cocktails & extraordinary elixirs —The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour is truly a hidden treasure of East London. Opened by collectors, drinks historians & absinthe experts — Allison Crawbuck (Brooklyn) & Rhys Everett (London) in 2016, the duo bring with them a shared passion for the mysterious world of spirits & the macabre.

—————————————-

Devil’s Botany is the UK’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour. Celebrating spirit’s connection to art, literature, magic & mixology, Devil’s Botany is unleashing the future of absinthe with bold expressions for the adventurous drinkers of today.

The venue opens at 18:30. Doors will close at 19:00 to avoid disrupting the speaker. We kindly ask that all guests arrive before 19:00. Refunds are not possible for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances.

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture. Tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Chocolate Absinthe. Doors open at 6:30pm and talk starts at 7pm

Ghost Films: A Seance of Early Cinema

Victorian filmmakers were fascinated by ghosts and the occult; in their jubilant experiments at the birth of cinema, they explored everything from effects for the creation of ghosts, to skits about seances and spiritualists, to speculations about the ‘ghostliness’ of the new medium itself. In our time, with more than 90% of Victorian films presumed lost, how do the ghosts of these filmmakers and films haunt the narratives of film history? How do spectral traces of little-studied figures – the disruptive, the marginalised, the unclassifiable – lurk in the margins of those narratives? Most of all, how does the documentary detritus of the archive provide us with material for research ‘seances’, opportunities for ghostly reconstruction?

Join theatre and film scholar Alex Kirstukas for a lecture that features a selection of surviving early ‘ghost films’ with live commentary, and calls upon Victorian seance practices for an interactive experiment in raising the ghosts of intriguing films now lost.

Devil’s Botany is the UK’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour. Celebrating spirit’s connection to art, literature, magic & mixology, Devil’s Botany is unleashing the future of absinthe with bold expressions for the adventurous drinkers of today. The Last Tuesday Society’s curious Monday night lecture series is sponsored by Devil’s Botany.

The venue opens at 18:30. Doors will close at 19:00 to avoid disrupting the speaker. We kindly ask that all guests arrive before 19:00. Refunds are not possible for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances. Please note, the museum of curiosities is not opened on Mondays during our lectures.

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture. Tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Chocolate Absinthe. Doors open at 6:30pm and talk starts at 7pm

Dracula Returns To Derby with Dan Webber

On 15th May 1924, Hamilton Deane produced the first official stage adaptation of Dracula at The Grand Theatre in Derby, creating the iconic version of the character we know today. Dracula Events Specialist Dan Webber unearths the fascinating connections between the city of Derby, and the World’s most famous vampire, following research undertaken as part of ‘Dracula Returns To Derby’.

Dan Webber (he/him) is an award-winning LGBTQ+ poet, promoter and producer. He has appeared at numerous festivals and venues across the country, including Glastonbury Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, The Royal Vauxhall Tavern and as part of the 25th birthday celebrations for Leicester Comedy Festival. His latest collection, ‘Whispers From The Woods’ was published by The University of Derby Press in July 2025.

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The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society is London’s best award-winning alternative cocktail bar hidden within The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. A drinker’s cabinet of wonder filled curious cocktails & extraordinary elixirs —The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour is truly a hidden treasure of East London. Opened by collectors, drinks historians & absinthe experts — Allison Crawbuck (Brooklyn) & Rhys Everett (London) in 2016, the duo bring with them a shared passion for the mysterious world of spirits & the macabre.

Devil’s Botany is the UK’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour. Celebrating spirit’s connection to art, literature, magic & mixology, Devil’s Botany is unleashing the future of absinthe with bold expressions for the adventurous drinkers of today. The Last Tuesday Society’s curious Monday night lecture series is sponsored by Devil’s Botany.

The venue opens at 18:30. Doors will close at 19:00 to avoid disrupting the speaker. We kindly ask that all guests arrive before 19:00. Refunds are not possible for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances. Please note, the museum of curiosities is not opened on Mondays during our lectures.

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture. Tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Chocolate Absinthe. Doors open at 6:30pm and talk starts at 7pm

The Old Stones: A Field Guide to the Prehistoric places of Britain and Ireland

A highly illustrated and fast paced talk based around many of the themes, new discoveries and mysteries highlighted in our book The Old Stones, along with a look at many lesser known but interesting sites around the UK. The Old Stones is the most comprehensive and thought-provoking field guide ever published to the iconic standing stones and prehistoric places of Britain and Ireland and was a winner of Current Archaeology Book of the Year.

Andy Burnham is lead author of ‘The Old Stones – the Megalithic Sites of Britain and Ireland’ book, along with other contributors to the huge Megalithic Portal web resource which he founded and has been running continuously since 2001.

The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society is London’s best award-winning alternative cocktail bar hidden within The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. A drinker’s cabinet of wonder filled curious cocktails & extraordinary elixirs —The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour is truly a hidden treasure of East London. Opened by collectors, drinks historians & absinthe experts — Allison Crawbuck (Brooklyn) & Rhys Everett (London) in 2016, the duo bring with them a shared passion for the mysterious world of spirits & the macabre.

—————————————-

Devil’s Botany is the UK’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour. Celebrating spirit’s connection to art, literature, magic & mixology, Devil’s Botany is unleashing the future of absinthe with bold expressions for the adventurous drinkers of today.

The venue opens at 18:30. Doors will close at 19:00 to avoid disrupting the speaker. We kindly ask that all guests arrive before 19:00. Refunds are not possible for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances.

Please note this is NOT a ZOOM Lecture but an in person lecture. Tickets include a complimentary glass of Devil’s Botany Chocolate Absinthe. Doors open at 6:30pm and talk starts at 7pm

K-Pop Demon Hunters: Women, Spirits, and Korea’s Occult Traditions with Melanie Hyo-In Han

Inspired by the Netflix original film K-Pop Demon Hunters, this illustrated talk uses the movie as a gateway into Korea’s spiritual landscape.

The film’s vision of song as sorcery and female warriors battling unseen forces draws directly from musok, Korea’s indigenous shamanic tradition. For centuries, mudang—predominantly women—have worked with spirits through ritual music, dance, and performance to heal, protect, and negotiate with the unseen world. In K-Pop Demon Hunters, these practices are reimagined as pop spectacle, where music becomes a weapon and performance becomes ritual.

In this lecture, Melanie Hyo-In Han explores how musok and mudang traditions—often misunderstood or marginalised—inform the film’s imagery, narrative, and worldview. Moving beyond the screen, the talk situates these practices within a living tradition shaped by women’s spiritual authority, the disruptions of Japanese colonisation, and the pressures of modernisation.

Blending historical insight, cultural critique, and rich visual material, K-Pop Demon Hunters: Women, Spirits, and Korea’s Occult Traditions offers audiences a deeper understanding of Korean spirits, ritual song, and female power—revealing how ancient occult lineages continue to resurface in contemporary global culture.

Melanie Hyo-In Han

Born in Korea and raised in East Africa, Melanie Hyo-In Han recently moved from the U.S. to the U.K. She is the author of Passing Notes in Secret (boats against the current), Abecedarian: Banff, Canada (kith books), My Dear Yeast (Milk & Cake Press), and Sandpaper Tongue, Parchment Lips (Finishing Line Press).Currently, she is finishing her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Surrey, where she teaches undergraduate seminars in the School of Literature and Languages. She also serves as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Flora Fiction and the Two Languages Prize Editor at Gasher Press. Learn more at melaniehan.com.

The Absinthe Parlour at The Last Tuesday Society is London’s best award-winning alternative cocktail bar hidden within The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. A drinker’s cabinet of wonder filled curious cocktails & extraordinary elixirs —The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour is truly a hidden treasure of East London. Opened by collectors, drinks historians & absinthe experts — Allison Crawbuck (Brooklyn) & Rhys Everett (London) in 2016, the duo bring with them a shared passion for the mysterious world of spirits & the macabre.

—————————————-

Devil’s Botany is the UK’s first absinthe distillery, founded by Directors of The Last Tuesday Society’s Absinthe Parlour. Celebrating spirit’s connection to art, literature, magic & mixology, Devil’s Botany is unleashing the future of absinthe with bold expressions for the adventurous drinkers of today.

The venue opens at 18:30. Doors will close at 19:00 to avoid disrupting the speaker. We kindly ask that all guests arrive before 19:00. Refunds are not possible for in person events with less than seven days notice in any circumstances.