The obituary of Peggy Spencer (30 May) inevitably concentrated on the world of competition and showbiz fame. However, those of us growing up as teenagers in south London in the early 1950s well remember that era of large ballrooms to which young men and women flocked at weekends to meet the opposite sex. Dancing was a means to an end. How could you learn to waltz, quickstep and foxtrot, at least? At Peggy and Frank Spencer’s in Penge, of course.
The classes at their Royston Ballroom were where you would practise your early skills and avoid being isolated as a “wallflower” who either wouldn’t or couldn’t dance on a Saturday night. And so they equipped us to choose between the competing glitter of the Locarno in Streatham, the Orchid in Purley, or, if prepared to go further afield, the Hammersmith Palais.
