LONDONERS MAKE MERRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 1, 2 January 1941, Page 7

LONDONERS MAKE MERRY

NEW YEAR REVELS

CELEBRATIONS BELOW GROUND

LONDON, January; 1.

While many people danced and made merry above ground, thousands celebrated the opening of the New Year in the catacombs beneath the quiet streets. In London's largest shelter 8000 people made the rafters ring with "Auld Lang Syne" as. midnight struck. Above hung brave little streamers and bunting which the sheltered had put up for Christmas Eve. In one shelter there was even dancing.

Laughing couples tried to whirl on, the rough stone floor to an. improvised dance band consisting of a guitar, a fiddle, and two mouth-organs. The dancing was not very successful, but it was a lot of fun. Many shared bottles of beer and whisky. The old year could not have brought much happiness to these people, but nobody would have known. As Big Ben boomed' at midnight hundreds of people who were milling on the steps of St. Paul's broke into cheers and sang "Auld Lang Syne." It was a meagre crowd compared with the thousands that traditionally see the peacetime New Year in from the cathedral courtyard. ■ Thousands of wealthier Londoners :in the hotel ballrooms stopped their dancing and joined hands, sang, blew hooters, and threw streamers. :'■■:■■■ Meanwhile, in hundreds of thousands of wardens' posts the defence personnel kept their vigil-