In addition to our presentations, we’re organising a variety of workshops, seminars, public lectures, exhibits, and a large concluding conference. To get involved or stay informed, Follow Us on Twitter!

The BBC’s Lucie Skeaping leads a capacity crowd in renditions of seventeenth-century drinking songs at one of our popular ‘Jolly Good Ale and Old’ ballad evenings. © Being Human Festival (via Flickr).

8 December 2015 –

Permanent Display as part of the new Europe 1600–1800 Galleries, ‘Drink, Love, and Loyalty’, V&A

Convened by Angela McShane

A curated exhibit of intoxicant-related artefacts selected from the holdings of the host museum.


Previous Events

21 April 2017

Workshop, Intoxicants and Empire c.1600-1800: Space and Material Culture, V&A

This workshop, the first instalment of two events to be held over two consecutive years at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Beinecke Library at Yale University, will explore the spaces and material cultures of intoxicants and intoxication in the transatlantic and south Asian worlds.


30 September – 1 October 2016

Workshop, Intoxication, Discourse, and Practice, University of Sheffield

Convened by Phil Withington and Ryosuke Yokoe

Our flagship event will provide a showcase for project findings and outputs – including our database – and a forum for related work on alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, opium across the disciplines and across time and space.


10 October 2016

Conference and Musical Reception, Intoxicants and Politics: Past and Present, Palace of Westminster

Convened by Angela McShane

This combined conference and concert event will bring historical research on the topic of intoxicants, regulation, and policy to the heart of government.


27 June 2016

Jolly Good Ale and Old, The Strand, London

 Convened by Angela McShane 

Our popular evening of drink, history, and song bringing early modern music and drinking culture to the masses.


19 May 2016

Jolly Good Ale and Old, Ye Olde Cock Tavern, London

 Convened by Angela McShane 

Our popular evening of drink, history, and song bringing early modern music and drinking culture to the masses.


21 March 2016

Panel on ‘Leaf Encounter: Tobacco in Early Modern England’, Social History Society 40th Annual Conference, University of Lancaster

Convened by Tim Wales 

1 April 2016

Three Panels on Intoxicants and Early Modernity, Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, Boston

Convened by Phil Withington and Angela McShane 

A showcase of some of the latest intoxicant-related work being conducted on both sides of the Atlantic.


24 November 2015

Jolly Good Ale and Old, The Sheffield Tap

 Convened by Angela McShane 

Our popular evening of drink, history, and song bringing early modern music and drinking culture to the masses.


20 November 2015

Sources Workshop 4, University of Sheffield

 Convened by Angela McShane 

This workshop explored the opportunities and methodological challenges of probate inventories.


28 November 2014

Workshop, Material Cultures of Intoxication: Trade, Taste, and Exchange between the Early Modern English and the DutchV&A/Dutch Embassy

Convened by Angela McShane 

A one-day event exploring economic, social, and cultural exchange between the Netherlands and England by focussing on intoxicants and the social and material cultures implicit in their manufacture and consumption.


24 October 2014

Book Launch, V&A

Drinks reception celebrating the publication of Cultures of Intoxication, a Past & Present supplement edited by our PI Phil Withington and our Co-I Angela McShane.


6 June 2014

Sources Workshop 3, Norfolk Record Office

Convened by Angela McShane and Tim Wales

This workshop explored the opportunities and methodological challenges of quarter sessions records, guild documents, and churchwardens’ accounts.


16 December 2013

Sources Workshop 2, Chester Archives and Local Studies

 Convened by Angela McShane and James Brown

This workshop explored the opportunities and methodological challenges of church court depositions and city records.


18 October 2013

Sources Workshop 1, The National Archives

Convened by Angela McShane

This workshop explored the opportunities and methodological challenges of port books.