| Performance Notes | 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.
Theme for the 1913 ball was a Spanish Picture, taking inspiration from the works of Goya.
"...In the midst will be a striking novelty this year in the form of a statue of Venus, illuminated from within, and standing on a pedestal decked with flowers. The statue is the work of Mr F Lynn Jenkins, a member of the Arts Club. The general scheme of decoration will be modern Spanish, in colours of red and yellow. Almond trees in full blossom will be seen outside the boxes, which will be covered with red and yellow awnings, and the place will be made to resemble a Spanish plaza in summer time, a suggestion of hazy heat being artfully contrived by means of screened electric illumination above the heads of the dancers. The great organ will be hidden behind an imitation waterfall.
Round the hall will be fifteen rendezous, marked by illuminated discs, each of which will bear the name of one of Goya's pictures. They will include 'The Guitar Player,' 'The Brigands' Cave,' 'The Laughing Woman,' 'The Fair of Madrid,' 'The Snake Charmer,' 'The Toreador,' 'The Cid,' 'The Vintagers,' 'The Andalusian Shepherd,' 'The Bandarillo,' The Masquerade,' 'The Woodcutters,' 'The Sorcerer,' 'The Picador,' and 'The Water-Carrier.'"
(The Observer, 23 February 1913)
"There is no gayer episode in London's annual round than the costume ball of the Chelsea Art's Club, and its popularity is such that the Albert Hall seemed scarcely big enough for it last night. Most of the later-day costume balls have some more or less well-defined scheme of decoration or costume. The aim of the club this was to give a Spanish picture - of the period of Goya rather than Velasquez. So the rendevous around the dancing-floor were distinguished by the names of a dozen or more of the titles of Goya's works. Some of the dancers represented the originals of his portraits and figures in the works of his which more especially illustrate the everyday life of the Spain of his time. The prevailing colours in the draperies of the boxes and upper galleries were the Spanish red and yellow, and bulls' heads were among the various devices used in the decorative scheme, which was completed by an illuminated "waterfall" on the platform and a piece of sculpture in the middle of the dancing-floor.
The Spanish costumes struck a bright note, but they formed only a fraction of the ideas which the artists and their friends adopted or invented for the occasion. There were crinolines to remind one of the success of milestones, and Balkan warriors to recall current happenings in the great world. For the rest, the dresses were gay and gorgeous mixture which the fancy of three or four thousand people might be expected to create when left the their own devices, and the harmony which can come from a wide but consistent dissimilarity was brilliantly illustrated when the great floor was set in living and swaying motion. All the controversies about the quality and character of "Bostons" and "one-steps" quickly passed from the mind of the spectator in enjoyment of the graceful spectacle.
There were 29 dances between 10pm and 5am., and they included four sets of lancers, besides the usually liberal allowance of waltzes and one-steps. The floor was almost as full as it could be for the very first dances, and there was no notable shrinkage until long after midnight. People go to The Chelsea Art's Club Ball to dance, and in the intervals between different items thos who cannot find "sitting-out" accommodation had no scruples against reclining on the floor. There were merry scenes and quaint conceits as the ball progressed, and dancing went on with a rollicking swing until nearly cock-crow.
The band was that on Corelli Windeatt. The arrangements for the ball had been largely in the hands of Mr Sherwood Foster."
(Review in The Times, 27 February 1913)
The Adelaide Advertiser (19 April 1913) reported that a great deal of the women who attended the ball wore trousers in the form of harem skirts, Russian ballet costumes, national costumes, sports knickerbockers or chic pyjamas. The newspaper quoted one female ball-goer as saying, "If a woman has ever danced in trousers she will never want to go back to a skirt. In fact, the fashionable skirt of the moment makes it impossible to dance with any but mincing steps and gliding movements, which, are not real dancing at all. For real, graceful, enjoyable dancing you want trousers."
The ball was attended by arts patron Mrs Emile Mond, Miss P Lacon dressed in 'manly garb'; Mrs Richard Davis and Mr R Grey dressed in chess board and domino; Miss Heron was 'a queen of Egypt'; Mr Farnk Levison and friend deressed as 'Hitchy Koos', Mr Cole and wife dressed as a zoo keeper and bear on chain; Mr Rom Haywood dressed as the Red Fisherman. Other ball goers dressed as 'fair ladies and brave men', pharaohs, Marie Antoniette, clowns and harlequins, 'oriental' characters, knights and philosophers.
Balcony tickets were available for 3s each for the public to view the spectacle but not particpate. |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1913/1) |