South London Pacific, 17th March

Goodness knows why this place was on my List but it was, and who am I to argue with its appearance there? When moving my List from spreadsheet to blog page, I did research some of the ones whose existence I'd forgotten and I got the impression that, actually, this wasn't really the kind of place I'd normally seek out. It seemed like it was a little cheesy, a little 'high street'. It was also way down in South London where I rarely go. But I couldn't expunge it from the list.

Then, a few weeks ago, my friend suggested we go there for a night called Hula Boogie. This sounded like my kind of night and something of an anomaly for the bar. Voted (I'm not sure by whom) "best vintage club night in London" for the last two years, it's a night devoted to music from the 30s to 60s.

There was to be jive lessons for the early arrivers as well as happy hour on cocktails - 3.95 each until 10. Popcorn, some free chocolate and some vintage clothing stalls.

Well, I got down there too late for the dance class but it turns out there weren't enough people there for it to be held anyway. In fact, the place stayed pretty crowd-free for most of the night, although it did get busier the longer I was there. Not busy enough, however, for me to not feel self-conscious about dancing. Most of the people there really seemed into the scene and knew all the right moves. I didn't feel right sullying the dance floor when they were on there as well. I got the impression a lot of the attendees went every month and all sort of knew each other.

The popcorn was nowhere to be seen but you can't sniff at cocktails for 3.95. They were all 'tiki' cocktails and so all fruity, which isn't really my style anymore, but hey - I still had a few! The clothing looked authentically vintage indeed, with only a glance I was fairly sure nothing there would fit me! After a couple of hours someone came round handing out the chocolate - a candy bar called a 'Jive' (basically a discount Twix, which doesn't mean I didn't appreciate it!)

The music was also all decidedly 50s or 60s, but perhaps I missed the early stuff. Oh, and did I mention this was on a Sunday? It was open until 1 am but not being in the most easy to get to place (a good 10 or so minutes from the Kennington tube station, staying beyond the last tube would have made getting home a nightmare.

So I may have missed some more of the good stuff at the end. I had a nice evening there, but it wasn't busy enough or 'amateur' enough for me to make the journey down there again.