STRICTLY BALLROOM

IN the autumn of 1931, invitations went out for a housewarming at Claridge’s. It was a mild Tuesday in November and guests arrived at the private entrance on Brook Street in the glittering Mayfair dark. The British Porcelain Ball began fashionably at 10pm (supper at 11:30pm; buffet at 12:30am; carriages at 3:00am) and it was the inaugural event in the hotel’s newly built Art Deco ballroom. The extension had been beneath a pile of proverbial bricks and dust, overseen by the architect Oswald Milne, for two years. By the time it was finished, the Great Depression