London milongas (and museums)

Originally published 10.2.16

I have long been avoiding mentioning the controversial subject of milongas in London.  Tango Commuter's post about London started to tip the the balance for me. That and a general sense that reviewing milongas might be helpful for potential travellers with limited time and resources or just for those interested in the conditions of different milongas.  I just intend to say how I or others more recently have found things and for that to be useful it would be more useful if you knew what I liked. I said back here a word about recommendation and I know I said here that I would first try to give an update on what I feel about tango music and the conditions for dancing but that will have to wait because life continues apace.  To trust a recommendation, it is as well to know what someone doesn't like as what they do but I’m sure the former will become clearer in time.

When and where?

As Tango Therapist says, you can find the milongas mentioned below on the London Tango Calendar and also in Tomorrow's milongas, which lists many events in the south east of England as well as in London. I find Tomorrow's Milongas the most useful public resource to plan trips to dance tango in the south east. Would that more areas put aside their rivalries and followed that lead. Were there for instance Tomorrow's Milongas - the Midlands, Tomorrow's Milongas - the North East etc, making it easy to find milongas in those areas, more visitors might travel to those regions to dance. Better still, please consider telling your local organisers about the universal Tango Timetable which I see more organisers using all the time. I am told there are many tango timetables but I was impressed by this one. It is very simple and allows you to filter by location and event type. It is so easy to use and so universally applicable. I have been to quite a lot of milongas across Britain in a relatively short time but I still find checking for milongas in different areas a real hassle. I have to ask friends and check the websites and Facebook groups I happen to know about but travellers from far may know little or none of these. I wish there was a standard tool so that travellers and new dancers can do this.

I used to live in London but did not visit its treasures as much as I should have.  Now, when I go I generally hope to visit a museum, see friends for lunch or drinks and go out to dance.  I know I am not going to be able to avoid mentioning some of the places I love in London so this post is about some of London's great museums and the milongas near them that I have been to.

How much do I know about the milonga scene in London?  In short, only as a visitor although I have been to quite a lot of the milongas.  I first went specifically to explore the London milongas over about five days in February 2013 when I had been dancing for about nine months.  I went again in September 2013.  I went briefly mid-week in the summer of 2014 and then probably not again until March 2015 and then again in November - so probably five times in all.  

In that time, I went to Carablanca (older, more sedate crowd) - more about it in another post as I went there again more recently. Negracha is another tango dance club with a nuevo room downstairs and a traditional room upstairs. Usefully for central London the latter has a coat check. When I went and I think still now it attracted a younger, fitter, wilder crowd. Both Carablanca and Negracha are on a Friday night. These days I would prefer to go to Carablanca than Negracha but I have been to both on the same night. It is perfectly possible as they are a short walk apart. On the other hand, I heard good music from DJ Ivan - who runs Negracha - in another milonga in November whereas the guest DJs in Carablanca can be hit and miss.

Wild Court, off Holborn, leading to Negracha.

Sir John Soanes Museum is just round the corner from Holborn. It is a simply fascinating place. Fifteen minutes walk away, north of Fleet street is Dr Johnson's House. I spent a quiet, rainy afternoon browsing the rooms there in November reading about this humane, social, well connected, rather ill man. The house is signposted but not that easy to spot. It is this building with the steps:

In 2013 I went to Tango Garden practica on its opening day. The building is Georgian and lovely. It is inside a playpark for children called Coram's Fields. There was tea and cake and it was relaxed. I danced quite a lot. More recent reports say that it is still friendly, that the music is not bad but not great but that the dancing and the ronda is poor. I would guess it is frequented by new dancers. The floor, according to report from September, is apparently excellent.

Tango Garden venue, Coram's Fields.  Photo taken 2011 - After Children, Before Tango

There is a good museum near here called the Foundling Museum. You are in Bloomsbury, so the British Museum is a stone's throw away.

I nearly danced in this square in 2014 when Tango Garden was closed. I had planned to go there with a non dancer. These are the calm gardens of Russell Square nearby. It was raining though so we had tea in the garden cafe then danced nearby on the smooth floors of the closed cafe in Senate House, home to the University of London library.

Another milonga I have been to is Tango on the Thames (also just called "the boat") which I'll report on in another post as I went more recently. The photo shows the Embankment, by Charing Cross near where I believe the (new) boat is moored. Don't rely on this photo though because it is old. The Benjamin Franklin House is just up towards Trafalgar Square. This is a very spare museum but the story is told by actors and audio and it was very effective. Franklin was just such an interesting man. Nearby, on Villiers Street is the institution which is Gordon's Wine Bar. I spent evenings here in my late twenties. Apparently my father did the same as a subaltern in the 60s. The port is insidious. It takes possession of you, unawares. Hours passed in conversation until a searchlight-like brightness suddenly filled the candle-lit cave at closing time.

Hungerford and Jubilee Bridges to Charing Cross station

The National Gallery is nearby on Trafalgar Square and the National Portrait Gallery is around the corner. 

National Gallery

For peace, you can take refuge in the very beautiful St Martin in the Fields to the side of Trafalgar Square. I have often heard excellent musicians practising there for the evening concerts.  

This is my friend Christian who I have known for many years, taken with my boys in Trafalgar Square a few years ago.  

He is a knowledgeable and interesting man who runs groups for debate and discussion. One of the more public ones is the Cafe Philo usually at the French Institute in South Kensington on Saturdays or occasionally in a pub. It is run one week in English, the next in French. When I drop in I always meet interesting people.

I am getting over-enthusiastic, I know, about the glory of London....

...but in a city like this, how can you not? 

Across the river the walk along the South Bank is one of my favourite things to do in London. 

The South Bank walkway

It is quiet, away from the noise of central London, always entertaining and the panorama of London's architecture unscrolls on the opposite side of the river.  

South Bank to the right and Embankment to the left

I have been to the Crypt milonga in Shoreditch (before it reopened). It was an atmospheric venue attracting an older crowd. I think that may have changed. The organiser runs a heavy schedule of classes and workshops and I have heard no recent report. Also in Shoreditch: The Light (I believe it has moved venue again). The floor, seating and conditions generally were poor at that incarnation of the Light. I didn't like the atmosphere much or the women who appeared to be soliciting guys for dances. I hear that organiser never used to have good floors but I have heard no report of the most recent venue. 

I am not going to mention all the bars and cafes in Shoreditch. It is so trendy if you live in central Scotland and spend your days largely in Berghaus, Merills and weather-appropriate trousers, it's scary even for an ex-resident of central London. But it is exciting - right on the edge of the City this explosion of hipsterdom and multi-ethnic life. The graffiti there reminded me how unexpected London is. Also, how diverse and largely how tolerant. When I moved to Perth from Borough, south London over eight years ago one of the many striking differences was the diminished ethnic diversity. There were some Polish shops, you might meet the odd Spaniard, the occasional European but when for instance I walked around town or took my babies to the baby groups there were very few faces that were not white.

 

Dennis Severs' House has been recommended to me but whenever I have tried to go it has been closed. He recreated the home of a family of Huguenot silk-weavers from 1724 to the start of the 20th Century.  He refused to install electricity or plumbing and shunned modern ways of life.  I asked my friend to remind me of the quotation he'd mentioned previously by Severs. He said "Something like: 'The twentieth century is a nice enough place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there'".  He said he was reminded of it recently when he heard someone refer to Jacob Rees-Mogg as "the Member of Parliament for the eighteenth century".  Perhaps he is entrenching. He used to be known as "the honourable Member for the early twentieth century".   The motto of the house is Aut Visum Aut Non!  I have been though to the Geffrye Museum on Kingsland Road, not too far away. It is a tranquil oasis of social history.

During these trips I also went to Pavadita in Hammersmith West London - its milonga, its practica and to the 2015 New Year event. I also went to Corrientes. More about both of these anon.  I went to La Mariposa on a Sunday afternoon in Balham (when it was upstairs) but I believe it has moved. It felt like a nightclub in the afternoon and was not particularly well attended. There was a lot of alternative music and I found the atmosphere louche but it is another one called "friendly".

Another milonga was Tango Etnia by Regents Park not long after it opened. At that time it attracted good, young dancers.  Since then I have heard in the lower hall about "bags and coats heaped around, way too few places to sit, chaos on the overcrowded floor, almost impossible to dance."  I have also heard about problems with atmosphere and behaviour but that the upper hall, when it runs is better.   

Tango Terra in Seven Dials by Covent Garden had in 2013 and still now has live music and recorded music. I was too new at that time and it is too long ago for a report of mine to be valid but another report from October 2015 described it as a "tango disco" with traditional music in tandas with cortinas but skewed towards later showy stuff. The live music was from a duo including the organiser Martin on bandoneon which was "OK for a tango cabaret but not much good for dancing". Dancing was described as London-poor, tolerable in the ronda only because attendance was about fifteen couples in a large space.

I went once to a milonga in Tango South London, most memorable because it was so far away in East Dulwich and everyone that evening was very smartly dressed. It was also where I learned about Michael Lavocah's book Tango Stories, Musical Secrets, which had just been published.  The teacher/organiser, Claire Loewe I have always found friendly. She once rescued me in a class in Negracha and made me feel better when we danced together. The Tango South London crowd go on holiday to the stunning Bickleigh Castle in Devon. It is in gorgeous countryside at the end of a quintessentially English leafy country lane. I met them there in 2014 when I was in the area. The milonga was in a beautiful room, though very dark and invitation by look was difficult. Despite the lovely surroundings I felt uncomfortable and danced little.

Bickleigh Castle

I also went to Eton (Thames Valley Tango) by Windsor just outside London to the west. I have been there many times.  More about it another time.

Windsor Castle

Some of these milongas I have been to more than once. On my earlier trips I also did a few classes with at least three different sets of well known teachers in London.

It was quite daunting going to London on my own to these places as a new dancer. Looking back although I did have good times it was probably enjoyment of the “interesting” variety than straightforward pleasure - as you would probably expect for such a new dancer and unknown visitor. There is much variety of dance and music and atmosphere in London, certainly far more than where I live. Your age, your dancing, what you wear, your attitude, how discriminating you decide to be, and especially whether you know anyone are all factors which will affect the success of a trip. 

London has something of a reputation for being unfriendly and dancing within the regular London community but I heard that said often about Berlin too, even by Berliners. It is said of many places so if you are uncertain, then the answer is clearly to go with a friend or in a group. London also has a reputation among more traditional dancers for dangerous dancing and anti-social milonga behaviour. I tend to dance outside London when I go to the south. While it is not by any means true that all Londoners dance this way it is also true that you can often spot a Londoner in a milonga outside the M25 (London ring road) by their dancing. Sometimes I can't help but wonder what made them make the trip. A recent example might clarify. It happened at one of the milongas at Eton - a very popular traditional milonga outside London: 

Thames Valley Tango

The floor cleared during the cortina as is, happily, normal there.  A fashionable young woman I have seen before dancing in central London stayed with her partner on the floor where she had been executing her flashy heels-off-the-floor style in a busy ronda.  I was sitting in my chair and I had had my eye on a girl I was thinking of inviting.  The couple standing on the floor, waiting for the next tanda, were blocking my line of sight.  I asked them to move so I could see the girl across the room to invite her. Besides women loitering for dances, there are few things I dislike more than leaving my seat  to look for a dance which in my book counts as prowling.  I don't even like to stand to invite because there is nothing discreet about that.  This experienced couple did not understand what I was asking.  Even when at last they understood what I was asking, I don’t think they quite understood why or perhaps that sense of entitlement meant they thought that I ought to find somewhere else to sit until they moved on. 

I love London because I don't live there now - for the buzz of the capital so very different to rural Scotland, to visit a museum, see friends and dance some but I have no great expectations of the dancing there, the atmosphere in the milongas, still less of the conditions for dancing.  I am in no rush to go back there specifically for the dancing but then our preferences are all different…