Ongoing Events

Horrockses Fashions: Off the Peg Style in the Forties and Fifties

Until 24^th October

Wednesday to Sunday, 11am–6pm

The Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3FX (020 7407 8664

Admission: £6.50 (£5.50 concs)

Horrockses Fashions Limited was the manufacturer of one of the most well-respected ready-to-wear labels of the 1940s and 1950s. The company are best known for their full-skirted dresses which were sought after by women everywhere and even worn by Queen Elizabeth II. Although they were produced in considerable quantities from the start, the firm maintained an air of exclusivity for the brand, with an emphasis on good quality fabrics, especially cotton, with custom-designed patterns and fashion styling with Parisian couture overtones. The colourful prints, particularly floral designs will provide a visual feast for visitors to the exhibition. Horrockses Fashions acquired designs from a range of sources including in-house staff, commercial design studios, freelancers and also well-known artists such as Graham Sutherland and Eduardo Paolozzi, which were applied to the parent company's high quality cotton sheeting, which was reserved exclusively for Horrockses Fashions.

Curated by author and design historian Dr Christine Boydell, Principal Lecturer of Design History at De Montfort University.

Forthcoming Events

Marmaduke Dando presents

Heathcliffian Surly

Friday 3^rd September

7.30pm–10.30pm

Hoxton Hall, 130 Hoxton Street, London

Admission: £10 (though now sold out, barring returns)

Dress: Elegant

The Club’s own Marmaduke Dando will be launching his new album Heathcliffian Surly, playing all the songs in order. Guests will receive a free copy of the record, plus there will be musical support from Rebacca Jade, Monooka (who use to be in The Furbelows, as it happens) and Chancery Blame and the Gadjo Club. There will also be Champagne, gourmet cupcakes and extra booty for the first ten bods throught the door.

The Heritage of London Trust presents a concert

The Cries of London

Monday 6^th September

7pm

St Gabriel’s Church, Warwick Square, Pimlico, SW1V 2AD

Admission: £15 in advance from tara@heritageoflondon.com

Composer Rupert Bond conducts a concert inspired by London, including music by Orlando Gibbons and Henry Purcell, in the presence of HRH The Duke of Gloucester, KG, GCVO, to help launch the first Ride & Stride to raise money to preserve London Churches (the Ride & Stride event itself will take place on 11^th September).

The Bowlly Years: Megaphone to Microphone

Wednesday 8^th September

2.30pm

The Regent Centre, 51 High Street, Christchurch, Dorset BH23 1AS

Admission: £15, £10 concs (Box office: 01202 499 199)

A stage production celebrating the life and career of 1930s crooner Al Bowlly, from his barber shop in South Africa to London’s swanky hotels and NBC radio in the US. featuring more than 40 songs recreated by the vocal talents of Australian Damion Scarcella.

Ruth and Oliver Hit Town

Friday 10^thSeptember

6pm till closing time

The Fitzroy Tavern, 16A Charlotte Street, London W1T 2LY (020 7580 3714)

Admission: Free

Oliver Lane and Ruth Laceby-Common have finally seen sense and are moving from Wolverhampton to London, and Fruity has organised a welcoming party for them at this Fitzrovia watering hole a stone’s throw from the Wheatsheaf where we have our regular monthly meetings. All welcome!

Die Freche Muse

Friday 10^th September

10pm–4am

A secret Dalston location

Admission: £9 in advance, £10 on the door

Dress: 1920s–40s

A retro/speakeasy/lounge sort of affair, described by host Baron Von Sanderson as “in the great tradition of European cabaret, irreverent, decadent, sexually ambivalent”. Performers this time include burlesque dancers Millicent Binks, Marianne Cheesecake and Suri Sumatra, close-up magic from Magicmagic Wood, music from Tania Rocha singing Edith Piaf and disc jockeying from Richard Adamson. As it is a private venue the Baron needs a full guest list, so even if you are intending to pay on the door, RSVP to die.freche.muse@gmail.com and you will be informed of the location.

Weekend at the Asylum

5pm Friday 10^th–5pm Sunday 12^th September

A variety of venues across Lincoln, including The Lawns, Charlotte House and Victoria Inn, and Lincoln Castle

Admission: Tickets range from £22 to £53 in advance

The Premier Event for Steampunks in the UK, organised by the Victorian Steampunk Society. Authors, artists, dancers and lots of live music. Full day programmes and the biggest steampunk market in the UK, “The Bazaar Eclectica”. More details at the website.

SS Atlantica

Saturday 11th September

9pm–2am

Savoy Pier, London WC2

Admission: £15; see www.ssatlantica.com

Dress: “At-sea formalwear”

From the people behind Blitz Party, a party with the theme of a luxury liner circa 1931. There will be live bands, floorshows, cabaret acts, casino tables, deck games and lashings of Champagne and cocktails.

Saturday Night Swing Club

Saturday 11^th September

7.30pm–2am

City Firefly Bar, 18 Old Bailey, London EC4M 7EP

(Nearest tube: St Pauls; overground: City Thameslink)

Admission: £12/£11 LSDS members

Dress: Glamorous retro or modern but an effort appreciated!

52nd Street Jump and the London Swing Dance Society present three floors of dancing to DJs including residents Dr Swing and Mr Kicks. In the Alhambra Lounge you’ll find rhythm and blues, jump jive, boogie woogie and swing; in the Savoy Club you can receive taster classes in dances from the 1920s and 1930s; and in the Rendezvous Ballroom you will be treated to the dance music of the 1920s to the 1950s. All guests also get a free £3 drinks voucher. More at 52ndstreetjump.co.uk.

Hula Boogie

Sunday 19^th September

7.30 till late

South London Pacific, 340 Kennington Road, London SE11 4LD (020 7820 9189)

Admission: £7

Voted Best Club Night in the 2009 EasyJet Readers’ Awards, this is a vintage music and dance night set in an extraordinarily-styled Tiki bar in south London. Listen to music from the 1930s to the 1940s; get there early for the Jive class (7.30–8pm) or Hukilau Hula dance class (8–8.15pm)—no partner or experience necessary. More details at the Hula Boogie website.

The Bridport Hat Festival

Friday 17^th–Sunday 19^th September

Various venues in Bridport, Dorset

A mixed bag of largely family-friendly activities, loosely based around titfers. There are musical performances (Hank Wangford, bluesman Jim Reynolds and ska monsters One Step Beyond), tango dancing, a cocktail evening, exhibits from the Stockport Museum of Hatting plus a hat market every day at the Arts Centre and Electric Palace. On Saturday morning you will have your chance to appear in a “mass hat photo”. More details will be announced, so keep your peepers on the website.

Goodwood Revival

Friday 17^th–Sunday 19^th September

Goodwood House, Goodwood, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 0PX

Admission: From £35 for a day and £107 for the whole weekend plus a host of extra costs if you want grandstand access, a space to pitch a tent, permission to breathe, etc. See the website for the full menu of exciting fees.

The Goodwood Revival is the world’s most popular historic motor race meeting and the only event of its kind to be staged in the romantic time capsule of the Fifties and Sixties. As well as recreating the golden era of motor sport, the Revival offers exceptional wheel-to-wheel racing around a classic circuit, untouched by the modern world.

The Revival relives the glory days of Goodwood Motor Circuit, which ranked alongside Silverstone as Britain’s leading racing venue throughout its active years between 1948 and 1966. During this time, it hosted contemporary racing of all kinds, including Formula One, the famous Goodwood Nine Hours race and the celebrated Tourist Trophy sports car race.

Now, for three days each September, the circuit stages a historic race meeting for the kind of cars and motorcycles that would have competed at Goodwood between 1948 and 1966. The circuit echoes to the spine-tingling bark of golden-age Grand Prix cars from the Fifties and Sixties, thundering sports and GT cars, as well as historic saloon cars and little-seen Formula Juniors. Many of these important historic racing cars are driven by famous faces from motor sport past and present. Sir Stirling Moss, John Surtees, Sir Jack Brabham, Phil Hill, Derek Bell, David Coulthard, Damon Hill, Gerhard Berger, Johnny Herbert, Wayne Gardner, Giacomo Agostini and the late, great Barry Sheene have all taken part at the Revival.

Darkteaser’s Garter Lounge

Sunday 19^th September

7.00–11.30pm

The Leamington Assembly, Spencer Street, Leamington Spa, CV31

Admission: £20 in advance only

Those with a taste for burlesque might like to investigate Darkteaser’s Garter Lounge show, this coming at you from Leamington Spa’s sumptuous art deco Assembly. As a further treat the 50s diner Dockers is offering 10% discount to anyone with a ticket to the show for some pre-strip chow and if you need to kip over the Falstaff Hotel are also offering a special discount. Tonight’s show stars Darkteaser herself, Vicky Butterfly, Lalla Morte, Lady Ane Angel, Red Sarah, Veronika Valentine, Chrys Columbine, Joe Black, Emerald Ace, Starla Haze, Lexi Sexx and Bam Bam Blue plus dark, operatic cabaret From Nara Taylor and Metal Pete Compèred By the Deviie Miss Em.

Kinetoscope: Silent and Early Cinema

Thursday 23rd September

7.30pm–12.30am

The George Tavern, 373 Commercial Road, London E1 0LA

Admission: FREE

A new monthly night celebrating silent and early cinema at the splendidly eclectic and artistic George Tavern. This month it is Dickens Before Sound, a unique collection of early adaptations of one Britain's favourite authors. Featuring:

1. Gabriel Grub (1878)

2. Scrooge (aka: Marley's Ghost) (1901)

3. The Cricket On The Hearth (1909)

4. Oliver Twist (1909)

5. The Boy And The Convict (1909)

6. Nicholas Nickleby (1912)

7. The Pickwick Papers (1913)

8. David Copperfield (1913)

9. Oliver Twist (1922)

10. Dickens' London (1924)

11. Grandfather Smallweed (1928).

Clerkenwell Vintage Fashion Fair

Sunday 26^th September

Trade 10.30am, public11am–4.30pm

The Urdang, The Old Finsbury Town Hall, Rosebury Avenue, London EC1R 4RP

Admission £5 before 11am, £4 thereafter

A relatively new vintage fashion, accessory and textile event, which Time Out apparently describes as “one not to be missed”. “Come and hand-pick your look from a fine selection of beautiful vintage clothes, shoes, handbags, hats, gloves, textiles and jewellery from the 1800s-1980s,” they say. “Without costing the earth both financially and environmentally. Organiser Savitri is an award winning events organiser with 18 years international experience in the fashion, film, advertising and music industry.” There is a changing room, an alterations booth and a café.

NSC Club Night

Wednesday 6^th October

8pm–11pm

Upstairs, The Wheatsheaf, 25 Rathbone Place, London W1T 1JB

Members: Free

Non-Members: £2 (first visit free)

Mr Sean Longden will intrigue us along the lines of How to Dress: Lessons for Men from British Cinema, 1930–1960. “Effectively,” he says, “I will be looking at questions, such as what to wear for specific occasions, and finding answers from films. For example: Q: How can I stay cool in summer? A: Follow the method used by Raymond Huntley in Passport to Pimlico and keep a one-button cream linen jacket in your office for use on a summer’s day (wearing it over the trousers and waistcoat of one’s three-piece woollen suit).” The presentation will, of course, be fully illustrated.

Last Days of Decadence: Wunderbar Weimar

Saturday 9^th October

7pm–2am

ULU, Mallet Street, London WC1E 7HY

Admission: Free?

Dress: Period, but no Fascists, apparently

Upon visiting our Far Pavilions party in August the University of London Union events manager immediately decided she wanted to hold a similar bash. I don’t know too much about it at this stage, though it has a Weimar theme (if you were at our Christmas 2008 party The Kredit Krunch Kabaret this should give you an idea) and they have announced the entertainment to be MC Fruity and Twin and Tonic—i.e. all the entertainment from The Far Pavilions. I gather that the NSC's Sean Rillo Raczka will be organising it on ULU's behalf and there is a plan to offer clothes to buy or borrow, period hair and make-up artists and a period-style photographer. Needless to say ULU have got cold feet and banned “fascist oufits”, which I assume means anything to do with Nazis, though I assume you could pick some other Weimar period military schmutter and argue your ideology at the door… More details to come.

Saturday Night Swing Club

Saturday 9^th October

7.30pm–2am

City Firefly Bar, 18 Old Bailey, London EC4M 7EP

(Nearest tube: St Pauls; overground: City Thameslink)

Admission: £12/£11 LSDS members

Dress: Glamorous retro or modern but an effort appreciated!

52nd Street Jump and the London Swing Dance Society present three floors of dancing to DJs including residents Dr Swing and Mr Kicks. In the Alhambra Lounge you’ll find rhythm and blues, jump jive, boogie woogie and swing; in the Savoy Club you can receive taster classes in dances from the 1920s and 1930s; and in the Rendezvous Ballroom you will be treated to the dance music of the 1920s to the 1950s. All guests also get a free £3 drinks voucher. More at 52ndstreetjump.co.uk.

Blind Lemon Vintage Fashion Fair

Sunday 10^th October

10.30am–5pm

The Guildhall Theatre, 23 Eastgate Street, Gloucester

Admission: £4.50 (£3.50 concs)

Some 30 stalls selling everything from menswear to womenswear to accessories and jewellery. Be at the venue by noon to take part in a prize draw to win £100 of vouchers. See the Blind Lemon website for more details.

Clerkenwell Vintage Fashion Fair

Sunday 17^th October

Trade 10.30am, public11am–4.30pm

The Urdang, The Old Finsbury Town Hall, Rosebury Avenue, London EC1R 4RP

Admission £5 before 11am, £4 thereafter

A relatively new vintage fashion, accessory and textile event, which Time Out apparently describes as “one not to be missed”. “Come and hand-pick your look from a fine selection of beautiful vintage clothes, shoes, handbags, hats, gloves, textiles and jewellery from the 1800s-1980s,” they say. “Without costing the earth both financially and environmentally. Organiser Savitri is an award winning events organiser with 18

years international experience in the fashion, film, advertising and music industry.” There is a changing room, an alterations booth and a café.

Hula Boogie

Sunday 17^th October

7.30 till late

Sunday 15^th August

South London Pacific, 340 Kennington Road, London SE11 4LD (020 7820 9189)

Admission: £7

Voted Best Club Night in the 2009 EasyJet Readers’ Awards, this is a vintage music and dance night set in an extraordinarily-styled Tiki bar in south London. Listen to music from the 1930s to the 1940s; get there early for the Jive class (7.30–8pm) or Hukilau Hula dance class (8–8.15pm)—no partner or experience necessary. More details at the Hula Boogie website.

The Book in Western Art: Symbol, Device, Allegory

Thursday 28^th October

7.15 for 7.30pm

Treadwell’s Book Shop, 34 Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7PB (020 7240 8906)

Admission: £7

The Club’s own Miss Minna (consort of the Chairman, no less) will take us on a jaunty gallop through the history of the role of the book in art and how its symbolism reflects religious upheavals, revolutions, publishing history, changes in patronage and the role of the artist. She sums it up as “porn for book fetishists”. Treadwell’s itself is a bookshop focusing on the occult and is a rather jolly place. There’s usually wine and nibbles laid on.

Kinetoscope: Silent and Early Cinema

Thursday 28th October

7.30pm–12.30am

The George Tavern, 373 Commercial Road, London E1 0LA

Admission: FREE

A new monthly night celebrating silent and early cinema at the splendidly eclectic and artistic George Tavern. This month it is Silent Shakespeare. At the turn of the 20th century, the film industry sought to elevate its lowbrow status by imitating the theatre. While cinemas decked themselves out like theatres, filmmakers signed up stage stars and turned to the classics. Shakespeare provided the greatest challenge, especially since many of the films made before the First World War were only one or two reels long.

Hula Boogie: Halloween Special

Sunday 31^st October

7.30 till late

Sunday 15^th August

South London Pacific, 340 Kennington Road, London SE11 4LD (020 7820 9189)

Admission: £8

Voted Best Club Night in the 2009 EasyJet Readers’ Awards, this is a vintage music and dance night set in an extraordinarily-styled Tiki bar in south London. Listen to music from the 1930s to the 1940s; get there early for the Jive class (7.30–8pm) or Hukilau Hula dance class (8–8.15pm)—no partner or experience necessary. More details at the Hula Boogie website.

NSC Club Night

Wednesday 3^rd November

8pm–11pm

Upstairs, The Wheatsheaf, 25 Rathbone Place, London W1T 1JB

Members: Free

Non-Members: £2 (first visit free)

Mr Ronald Porter will regale us with The Life and Times of Her Serene Highness The Princess Grace of Monaco. The talk (a reprise of one given a month earlier at the National Liberal Club) will, Mr Porter writes, deal with “her birth in the USA, her parents and her well-off background, school and college days and her acting career. It will cover her films and her romance with Prince Rainer, the famous wedding in 1956 and her married life with husband and three children, before ending with the fatal car crash and State Funeral. President Kennedy was intrigued by her. Hitchcock worshipped her. Our own Queen admired her and Princess Diana adored her. She “made” Prince Rainer—it was never the other way around. And she brought some much-need stule and glamour to Monaco—Somerset Maugham once described the principality as ‘a sunny place for shady people’.”

The Hunterian Museum presents

Wellington’s Combat Surgeon: George Guthrie

Tuesday 2^nd November

1pm

The Hunterian Museum, The Royal College of Surgeons of England, 35–43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PE

Admission: £3 (booking essential on 020 7869 6560), free to fellows, members and affiliates of the RCS, medical students and members of the Hunterian Society

Here’s one for all you military history buffs. The Hunterian Museum (well worth a visit in its own right) has a lively programme of lectures, including a series of lunchtime talks of which this is one. Michael Crumplin FRCS reminds us, as the country celebrates the 200^th anniversary of the Peninsular War (you were, weren’t you?), of the sterling work done by the surgeons serving under the Duke of Wellington. This lecture highlights the life and adventures of George Guthrie, three times president of the RCS and a talented and “robust” surgeon—don’t like the sound of “robust”. Better count your legs on the way out…

Saturday Night Swing Club

Saturday 13^th November

7.30pm–2am

City Firefly Bar, 18 Old Bailey, London EC4M 7EP

(Nearest tube: St Pauls; overground: City Thameslink)

Admission: £12/£11 LSDS members

Dress: Glamorous retro or modern but an effort appreciated!

52nd Street Jump and the London Swing Dance Society present three floors of dancing to DJs including residents Dr Swing and Mr Kicks. In the Alhambra Lounge you’ll find rhythm and blues, jump jive, boogie woogie and swing; in the Savoy Club you can receive taster classes in dances from the 1920s and 1930s; and in the Rendezvous Ballroom you will be treated to the dance music of the 1920s to the 1950s. All guests also get a free £3 drinks voucher. More at 52ndstreetjump.co.uk.

Clerkenwell Vintage Fashion Fair

Sunday 14^th November

Trade 10.30am, public11am–4.30pm

The Urdang, The Old Finsbury Town Hall, Rosebury Avenue, London EC1R 4RP

Admission £5 before 11am, £4 thereafter

A relatively new vintage fashion, accessory and textile event, which Time Out apparently describes as “one not to be missed”. “Come and hand-pick your look from a fine selection of beautiful vintage clothes, shoes, handbags, hats, gloves, textiles and jewellery from the 1800s-1980s,” they say. “Without costing the earth both financially and environmentally. Organiser Savitri is an award winning events organiser with 18

years international experience in the fashion, film, advertising and music industry.” There is a changing room, an alterations booth and a café.

NSC Club Night

Wednesday 1^st December

8pm–11pm

Upstairs, The Wheatsheaf, 25 Rathbone Place, London W1T 1JB

Members: Free

Non-Members: £2 (first visit free)

Our own Sean Rillo Raczka will delight our ears with his oration on The Life and Gesamtkunstwerks of Richard Wagner.

Saturday Night Swing Club

Saturday 4^th December

7.30pm–2am

City Firefly Bar, 18 Old Bailey, London EC4M 7EP

(Nearest tube: St Pauls; overground: City Thameslink)

Admission: £12/£11 LSDS members

Dress: Glamorous retro or modern but an effort appreciated!

52nd Street Jump and the London Swing Dance Society present three floors of dancing to DJs including residents Dr Swing and Mr Kicks. In the Alhambra Lounge you’ll find rhythm and blues, jump jive, boogie woogie and swing; in the Savoy Club you can receive taster classes in dances from the 1920s and 1930s; and in the Rendezvous Ballroom you will be treated to the dance music of the 1920s to the 1950s. All guests also get a free £3 drinks voucher. More at 52ndstreetjump.co.uk.

The Sheridan Christmas House

Saturday 11^th–Saturday 18^th December

Plas Meini, Llan Ffestiniog, Gwynedd

Cost: £160.57 per person for the full week

The annual week of drinking, carousing, revelry, festivities, wassailing, singing, dancing, smoking and eating—basically pretending we’re the idle rich from a hundred years ago. One day is designated as “Christmas Day”—complete with traditional meal, stockings and “secret Santa” gift-giving. In the evenings we dress in Black Tie for dinner, except for Christmas Day, which is naturally white tie.

This year we shall be terrorizing a beautiful rural Victorian manor house in Snowdonia, set in a 108-acre estate where the owners breed Shetland Ponies. A river and waterfall bound the estate—so there is a mile stretch of fly fishing and swimming in the waterfall’s pool (if you brave the December chill!). Nearby attractions include Harlech and the Great Castles of North Wales, Port Merion, the Ffestiniog Steam Railway, The Welsh Highland Light Railway, a Slate Cavern, sandy beaches, the Llyn Peninsula and the mountains of Snowdonia. Children, dogs and pipe-smokers are all welcome.

There is a railway station within three miles of the house. Journey times from London Euston are 4.23 hrs by train; by car the AA Route Finder says it is 4.47hrs.

The total cost will be £160.57. This covers the week’s rent, food, insurance, security deposit, Christmas Tree… and, if we’re lucky, possibly some of the booze too. As in previous years we will take it in turns to do the cooking.  All those who are interest please email robert@grundulis.com

My Vintage Dresser presents

The Yuletide Jamboree

Saturday 18^th December

8pm–2am

The Hare and Hounds, 106 High St, Kings Heath, Birmingham, B14 7JZ

Admission: advance tickets £15, rising to £20 nearer the time

Dress: Smart (as if you needed telling)

Entertainment from burlesque stars Peski DeVille, Snappy O’Shea and Lady Wildflower, live bands, disc jockey playing choons from the 1920s to the 1950s, all hosted by Master of Ceremonies Paul Savage, plus a raffle and homemade cakes. For more info see the website or email Katie.

NSC Club Night

Wednesday 5^th January

8pm–11pm

Upstairs, The Wheatsheaf, 25 Rathbone Place, London W1T 1JB

Members: Free

Non-Members: £2 (first visit free)

The man known as Charles Henry Wolfenbloode, Duke of Tipa, will fill our ears with High Silk: The History, Manufacture and Appreciation of Top Hats, including such worldly knowledge as how to identify a topper’s style and the material from which it is constructed, how to buy one, polish one and how to examine and value one. Members are invited to bring their own top hats for the occasion.