The Last Tuesday Society are an arts collective who are “devoted to exploring and furthering the esoteric, literary and artistic aspects of life in London and beyond.”
The society was first established by William James at Harvard University in 1878 and is now run by the Chancellor Viktor Wynd, who’s been running events in the capital since 2006. Regular events include ‘The Salon’ in which one of the committee members gives a talk accompanied by a nine course dinner or tea on a lawn, a quarterly séance and ‘Loss’ – a night consisting of Victorian taxidermy, headless pigs and piles of rotting fruit as a tribute to Gunter Grass’s fictional nightclub ‘The Onion Cellar’ in which people wept over chopped onions whilst sad plays and songs were performed.
Each May, Halloween and New Year they hold what are widely regarded as the most decadent and dramatic balls in London. Last weekend I donned my corset and feathered mask and made my way to the cavernous tunnels underneath London Bridge station for an indulgent and fantastical evening.
The dress code stated that masks were obligatory but clothes were optional and the guests fully embraced these guidelines with everything from topless beauties and gimps to devils and naked lion tamers standing in the queue outside the venue. We were all handed a peacock feather as we entered the main room where a full orchestra were playing. From the ceiling dangled garroted teddy bears and a man handed us a cone of candy floss which we dipped in our champagne.
We used maps to locate secret compartments of the venue, one of which had a floor covered in red feathers and played host to a life drawing class, during which four burlesque dancers struck poses on the stage. Another room housed hot tubs, with a few masked punters splashing away in varying degrees of nudity.
Other spectacles included a bucking bronco in the shape of a lady in suspenders which provided an unending amount of amusement and a body painting station, again, naked. The pièce de résistance was when the banqueting hall was unveiled to reveal a huge table covered in piles of vegetables, cheese, cake and fruit, the centerpiece consisting of three gold, nude models who casually sat about and ate from the feast. This proved to be a bit too much excitement for the guests and it wasn’t long before a food fight broke out and they closed the banqueting hall.
The rest of the night passed in a haze of dancing, room-hopping and drink-sipping until it all finally got a bit too debauched and we headed back to reality in a black cab.
The Last Tuesday Society are experts at putting on the best parties in town, tonight had the perfect amount of silliness, smut and fantasy to make for a truly unique evening which only set the guests back £20 a ticket. Roll on Halloween!
Tags: fetish, Gunter Grass, Halloween, Havard University, London Bridge, Masked Ball, taxidermy, The Last Tuesday Society, Viktor Wynd
