| Orchestra or Band | The Clabon-West Dance Orchestra |
| Conductors | W Debroy Somers,
Joseph Holbrooke |
| Performance Notes | The birth of Princess Mary's son, which took place at 23:15 was announced by megaphone from the orchestra to the guests at the ball.
"THE ARCTIC BALL.
STALACTITES AND SAMOYEDES AT ALBERT HALL.
Ever since the Chelsea Arts Club started its series of Fancy Dress Balls at the Albert Hall, these functions have maintained their position as the supreme embodiment of the Carnival spirit in London. Their great feature is the adherence, within reasonable limits, to a general scheme, of which decorations and costumes and 'stunts' form an integral part. The Ball next Wednesday is to be an Arctic Festival, and the decorations, carried out by the students of the Architectural Association under the direction of Mr Fred Leist and Capt. Hodge, are of an essentially arctic character. The organ end of the hall will be covered by an enormous canvas depicting the Quest frozen in icebergs, the band platform representing an ice-flow, and the boxed being turned into ice-grottoes. Mr Fred Leist had provided a cubist design for the centre of the floor, where, surrounded by translucent stalactites, will be seen a pole 40 ft. high and 4 ft. in diameter, surmounted by a Polar bear. A light of 200,000 candle power is to be used for an Aurora Borealis, and arrangements have been made for flooding the whole floor and the setting with colour lights.
That all the revellers should adapt their costumes to the scheme is almost too much to expect, but no effort has been spared to secure the predominance of appropriate costumes. Many of the dancers will assume the garb of the mystic figures of the Scandinavian and Icelandic legends, and the 'stunts' and groups promise to be of a highly original character. Over a hundred people will be hidden in the gigantic filmy figure of the Phantom North Wind, which is to sweep round the toom - the Architectural Association's contribution to the entertainment; whilst the Slade students will man a Viking Ship. Another stunt is called the 'Heart of an Iceberg,' and yet another takes the form of a huge penguin's egg which is to be broken by Polar bears to release forty or fifty young penguins.
The group arranged b ythe Royal College of Art will represent Sol, the Sun Maid, driving her chariot, and the Central School of Art students will combine for the procession of Freya, the goddess of the seasons. A sledge team of Samoyede dogs, each of which wither has been, or is a descendant of dogs which have been, used on recent Polar expeditions - Jackson-Harmsworth, the duke of the Abruzzi, and a number of others - will draw one of the actual sledges used on the South Cross expedition. The animals are perfectly trained, and are snow-white. The Samoyede i nhis own land - the tundra country along the shores of the Arctic Ocean from the White Sea to the Yenisei River - is put to more uses than any other dog in the world. He marshals the reindeer as a sheepdog does the sheep. He pulls boats, draws sleighs, or sledges, and many other things."
(The Observer, 4 February 1923)
"Chelsea Arts Ball - Tutankhamamen in the Antartic.
Chelsea arts students and others held high revel last night at the annual Arts Club Ball at the Albert Hall. This year the misc-en-scene was Antartic in conception. There was a background of icebergs in which the Quest was seen held fast, and round a cubist South Pole, flanked by stalactites of ice, danced a motley throng of gods, goddesses, heroes of the North, phantoms, gnomes and fairies."
(The Times, 8 February 1923)
Founded in 1891 The Chelsea Arts Club is a members club for artists, which for 50 years from 1908 held an annual costumed New Year's Eve ball, which was an infamous part of London's social calendar. After two years at the Royal Opera House the extravagant ball proved so popular it moved to the Royal Albert Hall where it stayed until 1958. The balls attracted media attention with their lavish theatrical sets, multiple orchestras, raucous midnight carnivals and balloon drops and crowds of up to 10,000 socialites, bohemian artists, actors, and ordinary Londoners in elaborate and often scandalous fancy dress dancing until 5am.
Each year a theme was chosen such as Egyptian, Dazzle, Noah's Ark, Prehistoric and Sun Worship around which guests could create flamboyant costumes. London art schools participated by decorating huge carnival floats, which were driven around the auditorium floor and which, at the stroke of midnight, would be destroyed by revellers. The balls were well-known for reports of public nudity, drunken displays of affection, fighting and unadulterated fun. In the vastness of the Hall with its gas lit corridors, curtained boxes and dark staircases naughtiness was the order of the day.
Similarly to the annual Lady Malcolm's Servant's balls (1930-1938) these events were a safe space for the queer community to meet and express themselves with unbridled creativity and little inhibition. There were no scrutineers denying entry or undercover police. LGBTQ+ party goers could feel (relatively) free to be themselves without the scrutiny and surveillance they underwent in their daily lives. For many men especially they could wear drag, dress outrageously, and socialise unashamedly while never appearing to be anything out of the ordinary.
It was New Year's Eve 1958 that was to be the final Chelsea Arts Ball at the Royal Albert Hall. As well as minor damage to the building fabric, a partygoer dispatched a smoke bomb that exploded on the dance floor and ultimately became the straw that broke the camel's back. The Chelsea Arts Ball was asked to take out insurance indemnity against further damage to the Hall and they didn't return. The Ball has returned three times since - in 1984, 1985 and 1992 - although the elaborate costumes and floats didn't make the return trip. The extravagant, eccentric originals remain part of the history of the Capital's social calendar. |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1923/8),
Illustration (RAHE/9/1923/1),
Dance Card and Menu,
Photograph (RAHE/3/1923/1) |