We can provide cakes for birthday groups, brought to your table with candles burning. This photo is from Porchester Hall in Bayswater

This autumn we celebrate an astonishing 15 years of speakeasy shenanigans. Our very first party, in a basement in Angel, was in 2010, featuring burlesque from Vicky Butterfly and DJing from MC Fruity. (We didn’t have any live music at the first event, but by the second outing I’d decided that a band was a must, and we’ve had one at every party since.) Over the years we’ve used various venues, such as civic halls in Bayswater and Leyton and our current home in a south London ballroom, even popping up at the Wilderness Festival for a few years. We’ve always offered food, but at those early events we just made sandwiches, although Will, our food and drink scientist, also cured a ham for that first Christmas and on another occasion made cupcakes with absinthe icing. Nowadays, of course, we offer a full three-course dinner.

The entertainment offering has grown too: for years now we’ve had our resident master of ceremonies, Champagne Charlie, and we’ve dabbled in all kinds of cabaret magic too, as well as welcoming our regular tarot reader Lucius and vintage jewellery merchant Michelle. But the thing that has consistently made our parties what they are is the guests themselves and their readiness to dress the part and throw themselves into the theme to forge an atmosphere of stepping back into the 1920s.

So why not come along to our Anniversary Ball on 20th September and help us mark 15 years of the Candlelight Club? And if you’re having a birthday yourself, where better to come and celebrate?

As it happens, my own birthday is in September too, so that’s another reason to party…