The Palais de Danse, Upper Parliament Street, Nottingham
The Palais de Danse, built by Midland Palais de Danse Limited, opened on the corner of King Edward Street, John Street and Convent Street (now Upper Parliament Street) on 24 April 1925. It was originally designed as a dance hall and billiard saloon.
The first manager of the Palais was Finley Thayer and the resident house band was named the Syd Reubens Savannahs. The dance hall was considered to be one of the 
finest of its kind outside London and its exterior architectural features were distinctive, particularly the large ornate globe. The Palais could accommodate 1,000 dancers comfortably and dancing would take place every evening at 8.00pm, except on Tuesday and Friday when private bookings were undertaken. Daily tea dances took place at 3.00pm and music was often broadcast on the radio from the venue.
During the late 1980s the Palais de Danse reinvented itself as a popular nightclub venue. It is possibly best remembered by club goers as the Ritzy and by clubbers across the country as one of the venues frequently visited by ‘The 
Hitman and Her’, a Granada television production which aired between 1.00am and 4.00am on Sunday mornings. This programme, first broadcast in September 1989, attracted over 1.6 million viewers at its peak, and was fronted by Pete Waterman and Michaela Strachan.
In 2004 the Oceana Club (as the Palais was renamed) was refurbished and enlarged. Despite the names changes the Palais de Danse remains a popular venue some eighty years after it originally opened.
