London's party people are donning grandmother's floral dresses, World War Two uniforms and heading to the air raid shelters again for evenings of swing music, champagne cocktails and other Blitz nostalgia.

Held every four to five weeks at different venues around the capital, Blitz Party is billed as a 1940s evening with community spirit, where people have the chance to escape the drab safety of the modern world for a time when Londoners defied Hitler's Luftwaffe bombers from behind the blackout curtains.

"This seems to have hit the ticket," said Blitz Party founder and organiser Mark Holdstock, who launched the club night last year. "We get people that know how to have a party and have probably been going to parties and clubs for quite a while -- older than your new, younger clubbers....

The first Blitz Party was held in a small bar for 80 people but the more recent June event held to tie in with D-Day landings sold out its 1,000 capacity weeks in advance.

"We've been very true and good value," he added. "People have seen that we make an effort and it's been paid back to us ten times over."