In 1993 three black financial traders joined together to form City Circle. Our aim was to organise social events for a small but identifiable minority in the City of London. We agreed that the best way of advertising these events would be by word of mouth and that personal recommendation would be key to growth of the organisation.

Belief was that high quality and innovative events would be our trademarks and that news of City Circle would quickly spread.

We held our first dance in 1993 at the aptly named Wall Street. The event was a success, attracting a crowd of more than 150 people who danced through the night to the tunes of Pleasure Roadshow and Tender-touch.

In 1993 the Eddie Murphy film Boomerang was released. A combination of this and a trip to Atlanta to the National Black MBA conference inspired us to organise a Black Tie Ball. We had been more used to dances than balls, however our exposure to these events through work, university and Atlanta encouraged us to try something different.

This first event took place at the National Liberal Club, a private members club steeped in British traditon. We had no idea what kind of reception the Ball would receive, however it was successful and over the years attendance has steadily increased.

One of our big triumphs has been the dance card. People knock each other down in order to fill those cards in preparation for that scheduled close encounter! Relationships, weddings and children - hopefully but not necessarily in that order, have all started with a dance card at a City Circle ball!

If you‘ve been to any other events with dance cards – remember who did it first. We know that we’ve been innovators paving the way for others and we thrive on competition. It’s great that so many different groups and promoters choose to put on events with their own spin and interpretation of the Ball and we believe that we are all the richer for it!

Nine years on we think it’s time to share some of our history with you. We’re in the process of putting together a picture gallery celebrating our balls! No pun intended! Please take time to check out the site once it’s up and running and who knows you might even see a much younger you!

City Circle is also refocusing. It’s critical that our image moves with the times and that we are delivering what you want. Our aim is to continuously improve the quality of our events. This web site and the new logo are the beginning of this process. We will also be putting on a range of new events this year, which we hope you will enjoy.

2005 will be a very important year for us as we’ll be twelve years old. It’s fantastic that we’ve survived so long but it hasn’t always been a smooth ride as there’ve been lows mixed in with the highpoints.

We welcome your thoughts and memories – but keep it clean!

so please feel free to contact us and comment on the website.

Thanks again for your support.

City Circle