THE Forum in High Street, Oxford, was a popular venue for ballroom dancing in postwar years.

Couples who learned to dance at such places at Brett’s in Broad Street perfected their steps at the Forum as well as at Carfax Assembly Rooms, the Town Hall and the Holyoake at Headington.

Many romances started and flourished or foundered on these dance floors.

Bands such as Stan Rogers’ Blue Star Players and the Eric Tolley Orchestra would provide the music.

By the mid-1950s, however, graceful ballroom dancing came under threat – from jiving.

All teenagers wanted to do was jig to the latest pop tunes, leaving little room for the ballroom enthusiasts.

At the Forum, the clash of routines became so great that organisers put up two large notices above the bandstand – “jiving only when announced”.

Oxford Mail:

  • Brian Smith and Susan Crozier receive their tickets for the Forum’s ‘last dance that wasn’t’ from doorman Ron Panter in 1961

The notices were necessary in a small dance hall – the Forum held just 300 – if ballroom dancers, whose dancing styles took up floor space, were to be given a chance.

Band leader Stan Rogers, who ran the Saturday night dances at the Forum, restricted jiving to the back of the hall.

He said in 1963: “I am trying to keep ballroom dancing alive in Oxford. That is why it is only six shillings for men and five shillings for women to come in.”

By that time, most of his fellow bandsmen had given up.

The Forum organised a ‘last dance’ on December 30, 1961. That was how it was advertised and that was certainly the impression given to the 300 people who flocked there that night.

In fact, the venue survived for another three-and-a-half years, until June 19, 1965. Its closure went almost unnoticed, rating only a brief article at the bottom of Page 3 in the Oxford Mail.

The ballroom was eventually demolished by owners St Edmund Hall to make way for extensions and a new quad.

Oxford Mail:

  • Workmen demolishing the Forum dance hall in July 1965

Carfax Assembly Rooms and the Holyoake battled on for two more years before they went the same way. After that, any ballroom dancers who wanted to step out on to the dance floor had to travel to Reading.