Going to a dance

Going out dancing was among the most popular pastimes during the Second World War, with events organised frequently in towns across the UK. And the arrival in the country of American GIs from 1942 brought new dances from the US, including the lindy hop, which had originated in New York’s Harlem in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Dance halls had opened across Britain in the 1920s and their popularity only increased during the Second World War. Among the largest was the luxurious Hammersmith Palais, which could hold 2,000 dancers. The larger the dance hall, the more famous the band that played there, including big names from the US like Glenn Miller & His Orchestra.

But it wasn’t just London that was home to large dance halls; every decently sized town had its own dance or drill hall, often with a sprung wooden floor to aid dancing.

The government encouraged dancing as a way to maintain morale and, for a few hours, to escape the rigours and stresses of daily life.

It’s pretty fair to say that wherever there were soldiers stationed, there were dances. In fact, sometimes transport was even arranged to bring local girls along to dances held where soldiers were staying.

Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sussex, the setting for The Third Letter, saw many dances like these during the early years of the war and up until mid-1944, when the majority of soldiers stationed there departed.

In fact, the first chapter of the novel is set at a dance like this, held at a requisitioned manor house a few miles out of the town.

“A promise was a promise. Clara couldn’t back out now, not having cycled all the way out here. She pulled back her shoulders and, letting the heavy oak door of the requisitioned manor house swing closed behind her, stepped into the cavernous hallway.

Strains of jazz fought against the vortex of laughter and chatter of the bustle around her – a maelstrom of movement as soldiers jostled each other and girls clustered together, whispering and giggling. All the girls from the town seemed to be here. And at least half the Canadian army. They were everywhere, moving in and out of the rooms to either side of the hallway, loitering on the grand staircase that swept up to the upper floors. Yet more were now piling in behind her in apparent eagerness to join the party. The smell of cigarettes, beer, perfume saved for a special occasion, and expectation hung in the air.”