Welcome to Greenwich Skeptics in the Pub!
Greenwich SitP is currently the only branch of SitP in South East London. The idea is simple: Once a month, we all meet up in a pub to hear a guest speaker and enjoy a drink or three.
Our regular meet-up spot will change as of the start of 2025. We’ll now be gathering at The Duke of Greenwich (91 Colomb St, SE10 9EZ) on the second Wednesday of each month, unless otherwise noted. Talks will begin at 7:30pm. Although the talks are free and open to all, we would appreciate a small contribution towards covering speakers’ expenses (suggested donation: £4).
Stay updated on our latest events right here on our website, or connect with us on:
- Meetup: Greenwich Skeptics in the Pub
- Twitter: @greenwichsitp
- Bluesky: @greenwichsitp.bsky.social
- Mastodon: @GreenwichSITP@mastodon.world
- Facebook: Greenwich Skeptics in the Pub
We look forward to seeing you at one of our informal gatherings soon!
Our Next Talk
Memory and Injustice:
Wrongful Accusations in the United Kingdom
Dr Kevin Felstead
Writer
8 January 2025 Wednesday 19:30
The Duke of Greenwich
91 Colomb St, Greenwich – SE10 9EZ
Over the past 30 years in the UK thousands of ordinary people have been accused of crimes based on “recovered memories” resulting in thousands of false accusations. In this talk, Kevin describes the origins of sex panics with reference to several thousand case files formerly housed in the archive of a registered charity, the British False Memory Society which was operative from 1993 to 2023. He describes the catastrophic impact of false memories in the criminal justice system, which has seen families torn apart, and hundreds of innocent people imprisoned for crimes which did not happen based on fantastical accusations by individuals caught up in the repressed memory epidemic.
In 2001 Kevin Felstead was awarded a doctorate from Keele University where he taught an undergraduate course on the history of crime and punishment in England and Wales. He was later employed in the field of community safety, neighbourhood crime and justice. From 2014 to 2023, Kevin was the communications director for the British False Memory Society. He has been interviewed for multiple press releases about false/distorted memory and the myth of Satanic Ritual Abuse. He is a visiting external lecturer for several UK Universities. In 2018, Kevin gave a TEDx talk at Newcastle University. Kevin has featured on BBC London News, and he has contributed to a broadcast by the BBC World Service. He is the author of Justice for Carol: The Creation of a Satanic Myth in the United Kingdom (2014) and Memory and Injustice – Wrongful Accusations in the United Kingdom (Amazon, 2024). Kevin holds the rank of Rokudan (6th Dan) in Shotokan karate.
February 2025
Genes, Environment, Chance and Free (?) Will
Professor Yulia Kovas,
Goldsmiths, University of London
12 February 2025 Wednesday 19:30
The Duke of Greenwich
91 Colomb St, Greenwich – SE10 9EZ
Genetics is the fastest developing field in the history of human knowledge. New insights into gene-environment-chance interplay have implications for conceptualising success and failure, praise and blame, determinism and malleability, expectation effects, added value in education and health, fairness, and (free?) will.
Yet, genetic findings are poorly understood by most, including by well-educated people. For example, genetic knowledge is on average low among teachers, lawyers, judges and other professionals. Poor genetic literacy can form a foundation for a system of erroneous beliefs and potentially harmful attitudes, decisions and actions.
In this talk, I will describe recent genetic advances, findings from genetically informative studies in cognition, personality and behaviour, as well as research on genetic knowledge and attitudes. I will discuss promises and challenges of using genetic findings to benefit people.
March 2025
TBA…
April 2025
The X Trials – The Law and the Supernatural
Naomi Ryan,
Criminal barrister
9 April 2025 Wednesday 19:30
The Duke of Greenwich
91 Colomb St, Greenwich – SE10 9EZ
Lawyers will often claim that the law strives for objectivity and impartiality. They are in the business of making rational and reasoned arguments and have no time for the mysterious or macabre. However, in reality, the supernatural has been a regular topic in legal cases since Henry VIII made witchcraft a criminal offence in 1541. Our courts have seen all manner of monster, from psychics and witches to ghosts and aliens. They’ve even been called upon to consider the existence of foul-mouthed furry demons. In every case, the judge and jury have attempted to ensure that the strange beliefs are subjected to the same harsh legal scrutiny as any other criminal or civil case, even if it means deciding whether ghosts, ghouls and monsters really do exist.
So join criminal barrister and ghost-enthusiast Naomi Ryan for a journey into this strange area of law in which the Fortean meets the forensic, the bizarre is examined by barristers and the strange is investigated by the state. Learn about the Old Bailey’s connection to witches, decide whether vampires and aliens really do stalk our land and, most importantly, discover the connection between the Attorney General and foul-mouthed demons.
Naomi Ryan is a criminal barrister and lover of all things macabre. After qualifying with a Masters in Law from St Catherine’s College, Oxford, she taught criminal law to undergraduates at St Hilda’s College Oxford and University College London before embarking on her career as a criminal barrister, where she both prosecuted and defended. She now works as an advisory lawyer on criminal matters within the Civil Service and writes and talks about the darker side of legal history. She regrets that she has yet to cross-examine any demons.
May 2025
How to Transform a Tea Towel into a Chicken
and Other Mysteries
Professor Richard Wiseman,
University of Hertfordshire
14 May 2025 Wednesday 19:30
The Duke of Greenwich
91 Colomb St, Greenwich – SE10 9EZ
Join Professor Richard Wiseman as he takes a deep dive into the secret world of magic and illusion. Witness some of the world’s great optical illusions, explore the secret psychology of magic, discover what happens when you put the paranormal to the test, find out why learning to perform the impossible is good for you, discover how to transform a tea towel into a chicken, and much more. An informative and (hopefully) entertaining romp through a lifetime of academic adventure.
June 2025
Historic Building Mythbusting
James Wright
Buildings archaeologist
11 June 2025 Wednesday 19:30
The Duke of Greenwich
91 Colomb St, Greenwich – SE10 9EZ
Go to any ancient building and there will be interesting, exciting, and romantic stories presented to the visitor. They are commonly believed and widely repeated – but are they really true? These stories include those of secret passages linking ancient buildings, spiral staircases in castles giving advantage to right-handed defenders, ship timbers used in the construction of buildings on land, blocked doors in churches which are thought to keep the Devil out and claims to be the oldest pub in the city.
James will explain the development of such myths and investigate the underlying truths behind them. Sometimes the realities hiding behind the stories are even more interesting, romantic, and exciting than the myth itself…
James Wright (Triskele Heritage) is an award-winning buildings archaeologist. He has two decades professional experience of ferreting around in people’s cellars, hunting through their attics and digging up their gardens. He hopes to find meaningful truths about how ordinary and extraordinary folk lived their lives in the medieval period. He is the author of the popular Mediaeval Mythbusting Blog and his book Historic Building Mythbusting was released via The History Press on 6 June 2024.
July 2025
Has Elvis Really Left the Building?
A Short History of Celebrity Séances
Dr Kate Cherrell
Writer and broadcaster
9 July 2025 Wednesday 19:30
The Duke of Greenwich
91 Colomb St, Greenwich – SE10 9EZ
Since the creation of the modern celebrity, séance and the supernatural have been unhappy bedfellows, allowing audiences to incite or imagine interactions with their idols. Mediums and psychics have built careers on the backs of dead celebrities, with many long-dead pop stars unknowingly spurring an entire subsection of psychic memoirs and after-death experiences. Neither Elvis, John Lennon nor Princess Diana have had restful afterlives, but have experienced decades of public appearances and sightings, captured on film, vinyl and countless paperback books.
Para-social relationships are an inherent part of the celebrity/consumer cycle, but they do not finish at the point of death. Rather, they transform and elevate, where personal ideas, beliefs and senses of self can be projected onto a spectral blank slate. Looking at popular culture within the history of celebrity séance, we can learn more about ourselves and our societal needs than what Oscar Wilde and Michael Jackson had for breakfast. This lighthearted talk takes a sideways look at the weird world of celebrity seances in western history, from Elvis’ spectral adventures in Watford to Mark Twain’s post-mortem literature.
Dr Kate Cherrell is a writer and broadcaster specialising in paranormal history and popular seance. Her academic interests include 19th century gothic, periodical culture and modern spiritualism. She is the author of Begotten (2025) and Buried England (2026) and writes commercially on supernatural history. As a paranormal historian, she has co-hosted Haunted Homecoming (Discovery, 2022, 2024) and Unexplained: Caught on Camera (Discovery, 2023), and has provided historical expertise on upcoming television shows for major broadcasters. She has edited the blog Burials and Beyond since 2017 and can usually be found in some dark, dusty corner with a big glass of wine and a good book.
August 2025
Examining the Realism of AI-Generated Media
Dr Sophie Nightingale
University of Lancaster
13 August 2025 Wednesday 19:30
The Duke of Greenwich
91 Colomb St, Greenwich – SE10 9EZ
Details to follow.
September 2025
Using Data to Counter Quackery and Alternative Medicine
Michael Marshall
Project Director of the Good Thinking Society
10 September 2025 Wednesday 19:30
The Duke of Greenwich
91 Colomb St, Greenwich – SE10 9EZ
As skeptics, it’s easy for us to warn people about the harms of alternative medicine at an individual level, but what can we do when quackery is being pushed by authorities, or when the problem is too widespread for a one-on-one approach? From NHS homeopathy to midwifery alt-med, via quack charities and dubious overseas cancer clinics, professional skeptical investigator Michael Marshall will explain how a dogged approach to analysing publicly available data can help us understand what we’re up against, and provide the media with the evidence they need to publish stories that make a difference.
Michael Marshall is the Project Director of the Good Thinking Society, Editor of The Skeptic, and President of the Merseyside Skeptics Society. He regularly speaks with proponents of pseudoscience for the Be Reasonable podcast, and presents investigative reporting on the Skeptics with a K podcast. His work has seen him organising international homeopathy protests, going undercover to expose psychics and quack medics, and co-founding the popular QED conference. He has written for The Guardian, The Times, The New Statesman and New Scientist.
October 2025
How They Hide the Truth from You
Meirion Jones
Investigative journalist
8 October 2025 Wednesday 19:30
The Duke of Greenwich
91 Colomb St, Greenwich – SE10 9EZ
Twenty years ago the Freedom of Information Act was just coming into effect. It was going to be a new dawn of open government. Hoorah! For a brief window Whitehall’s deepest secrets were on view – some of them revealed by Meirion – and then Tony Blair realised that the last thing he needed was the cat out of the bag.
Find out how the Cabinet Office has managed to run a Clearing House – AKA Blocking House – concealing national and local government corruption and wrongdoing ever since. It is at its worst under Rishi Sunak but could we persuade a new government to let the sunlight in?
Meirion is best known for investigations into Bogus Bomb Detectors, Jimmy Savile, Vulture Funds and the Fake Sheikh. His stories have led to changes in the law and bad people going to jail.
Jeremy Paxman accused Meirion of exhibiting that “obsessional, slightly nutty commitment that marks out all successful investigative reporters”.
November 2025
TBA…
December 2025
TBA…