Last night I had the pleasure of attending the fabulous fifties late at the Museum of London with the equally fabulous Rhiannon and Juno.

We donned our 1950s apparel and were ready to swing.  I’m a huge advocate for after hours fun and frolics in museums.  It adds a whole new dimension to the visitor experience.  Late night opening are one thing, but when the evening openings are transformed into thematic Lates, the atmosphere is amazing.  And even better when the themes are directly related to gallery content.

The Museum of London late encouraged us to celebrate all things fabulous about the 1950s, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain.  The relatively newly opened galleries of Modern London are a fantastic backdrop for a Festival of Britain themed event.  The People’s City and World City galleries supporting the aim of the Festival of Britain which 60 years ago showcased the British contribution to civilisation – past, present and future – in the arts, in science and in industrial design.  It surprisingly was also an incredibly well timed event, following on from the rioting, the event echoed the feeling of the festival; the revival of a content and happy London.

The atmosphere at MoL was electric and the acoustics for the live swing music by Laura B and the Moonlighters was absolutely brilliant. Everywhere you looked there were amazing dresses, a lot of polkadots, bunting, glamorous hair do’s and swirls and swishes from full skirts.   You couldn’t help but be swept up by it all; I’m still in awe of some of the amazing swing dancers!

It was also incredibly exciting that my favourite jewellery designers Tatty Divine were on hand with a rosette brooch making workshop.  Blood, sweat and tears went into making mine, so I’m never ever taking it off.

I’m loving the concept of era themed lates, the 1950s has a big following, it also helps that many of us are absolutely besotted by Mad Men and The Hour. We discussed last night how a eighties themed late would also be great, but the more I think about it, the opportunity to dress up and learn about every decade would make a really interesting year of late night museum events.  Prehistoric to Modern day.  I could work with that. Bring it on.