LONDON KEEPS NEW SOCIAL HOURS FOR WAR CONDITIONS

Evening Star, Issue 23817, 22 February 1941, Page 17

LONDON KEEPS NEW SOCIAL HOURS FOR WAR CONDITIONS

Now that it is impossible to entertain in tlie evenings—unless you ask your guests to stay the night—a now type of party is coming into being in London. it is a cross between a cocktail party and a high tea, says a writer in an English paper. Guests arrive any time between 4 and C o’clock', dropping in for a few minutes on their way homo from work, staying until late in the evening if they live near. Eats are sandwiches—filling onxs, as they represent tea and supper combined. The last such party J went to wo were served with smoked salmon, tongue, cheese, and ham sandwiches, hot sausage rolls, and cakes. We sat round the fire to eat, drank sherry or beer. Afterwards there was coffee, and when at last the night became a little too “ noisy ” (as wo say when the guns and bombs begin), we all wont home to our shelters in right good humour. Another popular idea among women in the West End of London, now that most of the shops close at 5 o’clock, is to meet in the morning, instead of tea in the afternoon. Hotel lounges and _ snack bars are doing a new '■ nilddlo-of-the-mnrning ” trade in coffee or soup and biscuits.