There were other dancing clubs, too, where things were a deal more free and easy, such as The Gardenia, next to the Alhambra in Leicester Square, which was originally started by the Bohee Brothers, a couple of very large, coloured gentlemen who played the banjo with great skill and incredible energy, and who first found their way to this country from America, when Haverley's Minstrels came over here to Her Majesty's Theatre, and anon to Drury Lane.
For a time a portion of Society, with a capital "S" took up the playing of the banjo quite keenly, and one of the Bohees attempted to teach King Edward how to perform on the instrument, with only moderate success. The Bohees soon sold The Gardenia to Mr. Dudley Ward, father of the Member for Southampton, and during his control of the place, The Gardenia was a very merry, if somewhat rowdy spot. Mr. Ward induced that remarkable light of the old Moulin Rouge in Paris, La Goulue, to come over with some of her company, and show us how eccentric quadrilles should be danced. They were eccentric right enough ; though not more so than those measures performed some years later at the Duke of York's Theatre, by the Nini Patte-en-1'air Company. Things began to tail off at The Gardenia, for people can't keep on sitting up all night for ever ; and Mr. Dudley Ward, with infinite wisdom, sold his club as a going concern, to a very pleasant Australian, Mr. " Shut-eye" Miles, who I fear made no fortune out of his deal. Ultimately the place met the fate of many of its fellow institutions and was closed by the police.
Frank M. Boyd, A Pelican’s Tale, 1919
The Gardinia, it must be remembered, was a unique and peculiar Bohemian institution, which made no pretence of catering for those fond of prudery or reserve. Thought at the night clubs of those days the company was apt to be mixed, the members of the fair sex -- at least during the earlier portion of the evening -- rather affected the pose of behaving as if they were at a society dance. Later on, however, they were apt to relax. One charming damsel, for instance, having hitherto maintained a very correct and even severe attitude, electrified a supper party which she had joined by suddenly kicking over the table, remarking, “I’m tired of being a lady”. Night clubs then were often ultra-Bohemian places, where pleasant female acquaintances were easily to be made; they were, indeed, relics of the jolly old unreformed England, and not frequented by “young ladies” as are the night clubs of today.
Ralph Neville, Night Life: London and Paris, 1926