News & Features: Corporate

Our Top 10 Venues for Corporate Events: Central London

The cornerstone of Nathan Hassall Music’s business is its Musicians for Hire service where we have the privilege in providing our Top Quality Bands, Ensembles and Soloists to all manner of Corporate Events in and around the London area.

Following the popularity of our last article we thought we’d come up with another Top 10 list of fantastic Venues but this time aimed at London’s Corporate Events Industry.

Event Organisers take note! Whether you are looking to hire musicians for your event or not, If you are looking to impress your boss with your venue selection we think you better take a look at our favourite venues now: -

1. The British Museum: In London there are so many top quality events spaces available to hire for corporate entertaining that this list could (and probably should) be a Top 100! However out of all the venues that Nathan Hassall Music’s musicians have performed in we love the British Museum the most. The British Museum has so many diverse and visually stunning events spaces available to hire that you could hold a whole series of functions at the Museum and still create fresh and inspiring experiences for your guests on each occasion. From the colossal Great Court with its strikingly contemporary glass roof through to the famous Egyptian Sculpture Gallery and its useful lecture theatres, the British Museum can cater for the largest corporate receptions as well as the more modest. We particularly enjoy the arrival that your guests will experience through the fantastically grand Main Entrance with its large iron gates and open courtyard leading up to the stairs and majestic Grecian pillared doorway. It’s because of this grand entry and diversity of spaces on offer that more so than with any other venue in London we believe that the British Museum will make your guests feel both privileged and valued to have been invited to your event.

2. The Tate Modern: Like with the British Museum, we love the large range of entertainment spaces on offer for hire at the Tate Modern. From the vastness of the Turbine Hall through to the stylish restaurant floor with those fantastic views over the Thames (towards St. Paul’s Cathedral), there is a wide choice of event spaces available for corporate entertaining suitable for all sizes of functions. The Tate Modern is renowned as being one of the UK’s most important cultural hubs and it is also one of the capital’s most striking buildings meaning that your guests will feel hugely appreciated and honoured. It utilises its differing areas with a great deal of flare and innovation making it an ideal venue for corporate events looking to impress guests with a sense of London’s progressive thinking and creativity.

3. 30 St. Mary Axe (a.k.a. The Gherkin): The Gherkin is another of London’s most iconic buildings with its unique and instantly recognisable architecture acting as a strong symbol for the drive and ambition shown by the capital’s elite businesses. At the very top of the building, the exquisite events team at Searcy’s run a private members club and restaurant in a space that lends itself to corporate entering. With stunning 360 degree views over the City of London and with a sublimely stylish interior of black marble, the Gherkin’s very top floor is an ideal space for a drinks reception whilst the next floor down is often utilised for dinners. The contemporary design of this venue along with it being based in the heart of the financial district will create a feeling of importance and affluence amongst your guests, meaning that this truly is the events space in London for you to hire if you want your event’s attendees to feel like they have the world at their feet.

4. The National Gallery: With some 2300 masterpieces shown within its walls the National Gallery is one of the best collections of Western European art found anywhere in the world. This extremely important venue is only available to hire for its corporate members and sponsors and so events at the National Gallery are immensely exclusive in their feel from the outset. There are a number of versatile gallery spaces available to hire for events, ranging from the grand Barry Rooms with its impressive domed ceiling and ornate marble pillars, through to the lavishly decorated Wohl Room with its gorgeous glass roof, suitable for larger dinners. These are all fantastic spaces to hold events in, but the aspect we enjoy most with events at the National Gallery is the option to have private viewings with experts giving guided tours whilst your guests enjoy your hospitality. If your company is affiliated to the National Gallery then with so many beautiful and arresting works of art to see and enjoy we find it hard to understand why you would go anywhere else.

5. The V&A Museum: This fantastic museum is London’s home to all things chic and stylish, and more so than with any other venue listed here the V&A Museum manages to juxtapose the traditional with the contemporary and innovative effortlessly. There are some stunning spaces available to hire such as the main entrance foyer with its magnificent domed ceiling and striking chandelier, as well as the elegant John Madejski Garden which lends itself for drinks receptions during the summer months. With so many stylish options available as event spaces if you need to show a fashionable side to your company’s brand then the V&A Museum is clearly the ideal choice for you with its collections of haute couture and exquisite design.

6. Banqueting House: Banqueting House is a grand and dramatic hall and it is the most traditional venue to be included in our top 10 event venues list. Completed in 1622, the Main Hall at Banqueting House is a gorgeous and yet mighty events space found right in London’s political heart with breathtaking oil painted ceilings by Sir Peter Paul Rubens and exquisitely detailed golden fixtures and fittings throughout. We feel that Banqueting House (possibly like no other London venue) harks back to a level of opulence and grandeur lost from today’s buildings and architecture, and with the useful Undercroft area ideal for atmospheric pre-dinner drinks receptions available as well this venue can really excel at more formal events where a you want to invoke an ambience of English tradition, pomp and regency.

7. College Garden, Westminster Abbey: This venue has to be one of the most hidden little gems of the London events industry! Practically impossible to find without directions the College Garden allows you to hold lovely private events right in the political heart of the UK. The garden itself is simple yet beautiful and with their ancient surrounds the garden has an air of calm and tranquillity (a truly rare sense in London and one that we feel is unique to this venue). This is a perfect events space if you want to reinforce your brand with some very traditional values and a strong sense of old fashioned Englishness, however this garden is only available for events for a 4 week period from the end of June going into July, and so with such limited availability you do need to get in quick if you are looking to book (we think it’s well worth such advance preparation and effort though).

8. The Saatchi Gallery: This award winning gallery and events space is arguably the most stylish venue to make our top 10 list (even winning a “Coolest Museum” award back in 2010). Home to only the most cutting-edge of contemporary artworks, the Saatchi Gallery oozes a sense of modernism and progressiveness from the very moment you walk through its entrance. Each one of the galleries is available to hire and the art they contain has been laid out so exquisitely that even the galleries themselves feel like a work of art when you enter them. The events team are clearly influenced by the innovative art all around them as well and they are quite brilliant at showcasing your company’s products alongside the works of art, so that your products can almost feel like art in their own right. If your company’s brand wants to be known for innovation and flare then the Saatchi Gallery could be right up your street.

9. The Grosvenor House Hotel: It was hard to choose just one of the top London hotels for inclusion in this list and we eventually opted for the Grosvenor House Hotel because we love the sheer scale of its largest events space, the Great Room. Absolutely colossal in size, the Great Room can comfortably cater for the largest of corporate dinners being able to sit a whopping 2000 people for a banquet! Due to way that the Great Room is sunk into the foundations of the hotel as a basement level this allows a great deal of space for staging and audio-visual equipment and with the bonus of a whole balcony level (that can act as a reception space or a control area for your event management team) we would be amazed if it’s possible for an event to be too large for this venue. With a decent sized ballroom and various other events spaces available you can even create separate after event parties for your executives and staff, and so for large multi-national companies needing to put on huge events this could well be the perfect London venue for you.

10. Madison Restaurant & Roof Terrace: A relatively new addition to the London events scene, Madison is a venue that has some of the best views of the City of London and St. Paul’s Cathedral. Located on the top of 1 New Change, Madison is primarily a large open plan restaurant and stylish (very well stocked) bar with a partially open kitchen set in the far corner of the space. So far so good but nothing special you may think, but this venue knows and plays to its strength exceptionally well with floor to ceiling windows allowing natural light to pore in during the day time as well as creating awe inspiring views of London’s business district during dusk and at night. As mentioned in the venue’s title there is a very useful (and quite large) roof terrace area that can in itself be cordoned off for smaller events and canopied for those brave enough to plan solely open air functions. With some of the best views in the city we think Madison is a great addition to London’s corporate events scene and we are pretty sure you will too.

Nathan Hassall Music’s musicians have been hired to perform in all of the above venues on several occasions. We feel the venues listed not only display the highest levels of professionalism and style necessary to impress London’s big businesses, but we feel that we have a produced a list contains both the innovative and the unique allowing you to charm your guests with ease.

As well as the events spaces themselves, the venues chosen were also ranked on how we felt they treated the guests present; the friendliness of their staff; the quality of their food; and of course how they treated our musicians!

We hope you found the article both useful and enjoyable. If so, why not visit our dedicated Corporate Section for more corporate entertainment ideas and special offers.

If you have any comments about this article feel free to get in touch.


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