Prohibition Party

I’d really like everyone to attend. If you’re a single bloke with a penchant for classic beauties, the Prohibition Party is the place to be. It is bursting with feathered and tasselled glamourous ladies who outnumber dapper chaps 10 to one. The latest event, held in Holborn on Saturday 17 May, heaved with gaggles of girls in some of the chicest yet super fun outfits I ever did see.

The venue, Bloomsbury Ballroom, was a terrific venue choice and fitted the occasion well. Me and my two gal pals clip-clopped down into the jostling mass gathered around the bar for a glass or two of forbidden nectar. We sneakily assessed the cocktail menus hidden discretely in hardback books, and opted for a drop of mother’s ruin, muddled with raspberry, some sweet syrup and topped with soda.

Everything on the short menu was £8-9 and bottles of champagne were £50 – not extortionate considering that some bootlegger had risked his freedom to flog the stuff. Although they didn’t make the menu, bottles of beer were available if you asked in a hushed voice!

Drinks in elegant, gloved hands, we made our way past the whooping and hollering by the roulette tables (where many of the chaps loitered) through into the main ballroom. At the far end a jazz band absolutely owned the stage, while bejeweled girls in frocks danced below them like they were guests at a Jay Gatsby party.

Tickets are £25 and for an extra £5, you can get a dance lesson with the famed Swing Patrol so you look like you’ve got an idea what you’re doing on the dance floor during the main event. There are professional dancers sashaying and more accurately, ‘Charlstoning’ around the floor asking ladies and gents to dance.

It gets boisterous when you’re in amongst whirling strings of pearls and clutch bags being tossed to friends to be guarded while owners dance, but it’s never catty. There’s a real swell feeling of sisterhood. Girls look each other up and down but instead of glaring or smirking, they smile and nod their heads in admiration at the effort that’s gone in to someone’s get up.

There was the equivalent of a 1920s style photo booth in the secondary room, aka: a lady drawing punters in exchange for £2. The queues were l-o-n-g too, I guess because everyone was so chuffed with their outfits. We waited in line watching the swarms of scarlet-lipped girls totter in and out, openly pointing at people’s shoes and giving the thumbs up to their diamonte headbands by this point. It felt good to be so friendly, the atmosphere was something that cannot be achieved easily.

Gather your girlfriends, ladies, and venture to the next Prohibition Party on Saturday 28 June.

Find out more about upcoming Prohibition Party events on their website.

Can’t wait for your next historic party? Bourne & Hollingsworth present the 70th Anniversary D-Day Blitz Party Special in The Vaults, Waterloo on Saturday 7 June. More info and tickets.