From the mid 1850's right through to the 1980's small family business's created their own unique travelling ballrooms; moving from village to village and set up in a day they were the perfect way for the whole village to get together for a dance in the opulent interior of a magnificent Spiegel Palace with either a live band playing or sometimes a steam powered organ playing the dance hits of the day.

Staying for just a few days the venue vanished just as quickly as it arrived leaving nothing but memories of a world-wind of dance and romance. Constantly being re-invented the music & decor changed with the times but the tents were constantly re-invented and passed on through generations of the same family bringing a little glamour and excitement to the lives of rural communities. Whilst the most famous tents came from Belgium there were actually thousands of tents right across central Europe (Northern Italy, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the UK) plying their trade across rural towns and villages often returning year after year to entertain generations of families with music, performance and drinking. By the 1950's dancehalls (both travelling and traditional) had fallen out of favour and many of these spectacular palaces of entertainment gradually left the touring scene and got packed away in the family barn waiting.... In the 1970's a brief revival saw many of these classic structure refurbished yet again to create portable roller-disco and nightclub venues, often operated by the Grandchildren of the tent's previous owner spotting one last chance to give these glorious structures the opportunity to entertain one last time.

With the decline of the disco scene the tents were packed back into the family barn one last time and in many cases completely forgotten as their opulent fabric and wood interiors rotted away in storage and the hand made metal supports turned slowly to rust in many cases forgotten as generations came and went and the wonder of the Spiegelpalace faded from memories.