Big bands, bingo and Bali Hai: a 100 years history of The Palais de Danse Nottingham

Originally opened on 24 April 1925, The Palais de Danse was built on the site of Nottingham's original prison, known back then as the ‘House of Correction’. The prison had existed since 1610 and stood for almost three centuries, but by the end of the 19th century it had grown too small to accommodate the growing number of criminals in Nottingham. The last prisoners left the site in 1891 and were transferred to the new Nottingham prison. The building was then demolished in 1900 to make way for King Edward Street, a new road which linked Lower Parliament Street to St Anns Well Road. 

The venue was originally a dance hall and billiard saloon. The dancing area was considered to be one of the finest of its kind outside London and its exterior architectural features were distinctive, particularly the large ornate globe on the top of the building and the frieze of dancers over the entrance; both of which still stand there to this day. The architects were Alfred John Thraves and Henry Hardwick Dawson, who had a history of designing dozens of fancy cinemas across the region. The contractors were W. and J. Simons and the first venue manager was a chap called Finlay Thayer.

The Palais de Danse hosted dancing in the evening and daily afternoon tea dances, as well as private hire every Tuesday and Friday. Tea dances were elegant social events of the time that came about as an extension of the British afternoon tea tradition and were a popular way for the wealthy to entertain their friends. Live orchestras and small bands would play light classical music and the resident house band was named the Syd Reubens Savannahs.  

Punters would wear floaty dresses, smart trousers and shirts and comfortable heels, so they could showcase their moves to popular dances such as the Argentine Tango and the Charleston. In the 1920s dancing was considered to be the nation’s number one pastime. Refreshments on offer would include tea, coffee, champagne and punch, alongside cakes, pastries, sandwiches and fruits.

In a 1998 interview with the Nottingham Post, William Sunderland, then aged 87, reflected on his time working as a 14-year-old page boy at the venue from 1925-27, saying "I earned more in tips in a night than my father could earn in a week. It was very thrilling to work there because all the notables from the area used to come. The crowd used to go barmy. We had a fountain in the middle of the dance floor and they used to splash everyone."

In the 1930s, alongside the tea dances the venue also hosted well-known tap dancers such as Eve Fulton and Carre and Carlotta, who came over from Australia. From the 1930s to the 1950s it also became the ballroom of choice for big local employers to hire and host their annual staff ball. It was also used as an exhibition space on occasion, for the likes of the annual Nottingham Engineering Exhibition, featuring models of locomotives, aeroplanes and boats. 

From the late 1960s onwards, as popular music changed, the venue started to attract bands of the era for gigs at the venue. These included Episode Six (24 March 1966), The Move (21 Dec 1967), Slade (28 Oct 1971), Thin Lizzy (27 April 1972), Status Quo (2 May 1972), Wizard (23 Sept 1973) and The Clash (12 May 1977). The Clash gig was part of their White Riot Tour with The Aggravators & Subway Sect supporting. The show opened with Joe Strummer changing the words from London’s Burning to “Nottingham’s Burning” and then ending their seventeen song set with the same track.  

In the late 1970s the venue became famous for its Jazz Funk and Northern Soul all dayers with DJ Jonathan and Colin Curtis among those playing. The downstairs bar was rebranded as the Bali Hai Room and included a revolving dance floor among its many attractions. On 22 August 1977 the venue held the official convention for Elvis’ British fan club. This event was scheduled well in advance, but took on a special resonance when Elvis died of a heart attack a few days before it. Mourning fans from across the country crammed into the streets outside as well as inside the venue and there are photos of people dancing in his honour on the nearby traffic islands. 

Moving into the 1980s, the venue still accommodated gigs from major bands such as Level 42 (16 Nov 1980), Hanoi Rocks (17 Oct 1983), New Order (4 June 1984) and WASP (25 Sept 1984). However, once Rock City opened down the road in 1980 the club changed and became very much a nightclub-first venue.

In June 1986 ownership of the club was taken over by Mecca Leisure and the venue was closed for three months and given a £1million ‘luxury’ refit. Manager Chris Shaw told the Nottingham Post at the time that “It has been changed from a ballroom into a hi-tech nightclub.” The main club was renamed ‘Ritzy’, an 80s slang term meaning expensive and stylish. The downstairs bar was renamed Central Park, presumably after the famous New York hangout. Special guests at the opening night on 9 September 1986 included Eastenders star Nick Berry, 1980s TV Robin Hood Jason Connery (also son of Sean) and that year’s Miss Nottingham Jacqui Brookes.

For the next few years the venue went more mainstream than ever. Going through their event archives there was definitely a concentration on getting both famous people and beauty contestants at the venue - presumably to keep up the glamour hinted at by the new name. 

In September 1987, for Ritzy’s first birthday, the guests were singer Rick Astley, who was top of the charts at the time with Never Gonna Give You Up and Mandy Smith, a model who was famous for being the underage girlfriend of Rolling Stone Bill Wyman. The venue also booked in daytime ‘family-friendly’ appearances from kids tv stars of the time such as Wacaday star Timmy Mallett and Going Live’s Phillip Schofield (who came complete with Gordon The Gopher).

On Saturday 11 February 1989 the club had a major moment on national television. The Hitman and Her was a show that ran from 1988-1992 on ITV's Night Network. Its hosts were Pete Waterman and Michaela Strachan. Waterman (aka the Hitman) was a well-known music producer in the 1980s and as one third of the famous Stock Aitkan and Waterman partnership he helped launch the music careers of Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Bananarama and more. Strachan (aka Her) was an upcoming presenter transitioning between 80s kids TV shows like Wide Awake Club to presenting nature shows like The Really Wild Show and BBC’s Countryfile and Springwatch. 

The entire episode is still available to watch on Youtube and begins with Waterman driving a van into a Loughborough car dealership and leaving with a Ferrari to head to the venue. We then move over to an hour of footage filmed directly at the nightclub with long music sections featuring punters dancing to the pop tunes of the era. This is occasionally broken up by the duo getting on the mic and interviewing clubbers and DJs and running competitions and games. The best part comes about 28 minutes in when a group of smartly-dressed, but clearly very drunk men are challenged to sing Great Balls of Fire karaoke to the entire club. The second guy can’t remember the words, so they give him a lyrics sheet. He then channels his inner Alan Partridge and shouts the words down the microphone, almost deafening half the venue’s punters in the process.

It’s hard to explain the relevance of a show like this in the modern era, but in the days before streaming or Sky and with just four terrestrial TV channels, it would have been the talk of the whole city for weeks. Despite its late night slot, The Hitman and Her was attracting around 27 million viewers per episode. The show also visited the club a second time on Saturday 19 February 1992, towards the end of its TV run.  

In 1998, after twelve years as Ritzy, the club was bought out by The Rank Organisation. They gave it a £2.5million refurb, which included winching a new updated version of the Globe onto the top of the building. They also decided to rename the club back to The Palais. 

However, the old name didn’t stick as long this time around and in 2005 its ownership changed hands once again. It was taken over by the Deltic Group and rebranded as Oceana. This was the name of a chain of nightclubs they ran, with others in Southampton, Plymouth, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Kingston, Watford and Leeds. However, this name was particularly confusing in Nottingham as there was a rival nightclub called Ocean operating down the road on Greyfriar Gate (formerly Barry Noble’s Astoria and The Sherwood Rooms). 

The same group retained its ownership until recent times (although they’d rebranded the company as Rekom UK). In 2016 they rebranded the venue as PRYZM following an £800,000 investment. Again this was part of a chain of generically named clubs, two of which are still running in Brighton and Kingston to this day - albeit under new ownership. However, their Notts branch was underwhelming and troublesome from the beginning and never really recovered from a 2019 incident where four people were stabbed outside. Then covid hit and in February 2024 Rekom UK went into administration. The doors were shut and many thought it was forever.

However, in September 2024 the club re-opened once more under the ownership of DHP Family. DHP Family is run by Nottingham’s long-standing Akins family, who have a history of successful venues in this town from the 1970’s Victoria Club, to Rock City, Rescue Rooms, Stealth, Bodega and more.

Managing Director George Akins said: “This venue was always a rival back in the early days of Rock City. But it’s a beautiful building and with such a lot of local heritage we couldn’t let the opportunity go by without taking it on and seeing if we can restore it to its former glory. It’s by no means been an easy project just to get the doors back open, but we’re really pleased to bring back The Palais de Danse to the city just in time to celebrate its centenary.”

Here’s to another 100 years of dancing and revelry!

Sources: This article was put together thanks to archive material from newspapers.com, the Nottingham Post, flashbak.com and setlist.fm. 

@thepalaisdedanse