Chinese Lanterns – Dancing all Night at the Metropole in 1926

I’ve blogged a few times (here and here) about the recurring motif of Chinese lanterns in western literature – Trilby, The Man Who Was Thursday, Women in Love, Mr Norris Changes Trains etc. Of course if writers were putting lanterns into their work then they must have seen them up? My thanks to Anne Witchard of Lao She in London (now a super bargain on Kindle at GBP5.50) and Translating China for information on the old Hotel Metropole in London. In the 1920s the Metropole, down near Whitehall, was one swank place to go dancing all night in the ballroom decorated with hand painted Chinese lanterns. The hotel fell out of favour, as did the general area. But these days it’s up again with a bunch of new hotels opening in the Whitehall area and the Metropole now back again as the super deluxe Corinthia. But here, from 1926, is a host of flappers and swells living it up at the Metropole, complete with Chinese lanterns…..