20 Cavendish Square
/ About
The Georgian townhouse on the north side of Cavendish Square was put up between 1727 and 1729 by George Greaves, a Clerkenwell carpenter, and the Ionic pilasters of its pilastered ground-floor room are attributed to James Gibbs. Lady Cowdray bought it from the Asquith family and gave the freehold to the Royal College of Nursing in 1922, then commissioned Sir Edwin Cooper to convert it. Queen Mary opened the completed building in May 1926. The College still occupies it, and lets the principal rooms under the name 20 Cavendish Square.
Cowdray Hall is the largest of them: a purpose-built room with a coffered ceiling, three stained-glass windows by Dudley Forsyth and a raised stage at one end, holding 200 for a reception. Beside it sits the Council Room, lined in mahogany with Corinthian pilasters and lit from a glazed dome overhead, which takes 140 standing. The two adjoin, so an evening can open with drinks in one and move through to the other. Connecting the floors is the painted staircase, its walls covered with classical ruins in work attributed to John Devoto, James Thornhill and William Kent.
Twelve further rooms sit above and around them across three floors, from the oak-panelled Sarah Swift and the fireplaced Mona Grey and Jean McFarlane to a set of bright modern rooms looking over Oxford Street and the square. Nearly all take natural daylight, which is less common in a central London institutional building than it sounds. There is an in-house technical team, a catering partner cooking on site, step-free access and a lift serving every floor.
/ Rooms Available
Cowdray Hall
PrivateThe building's principal room, built for the College and opened by Queen Mary in 1926. A coffered ceiling, panelled walls and tall windows set with stained-glass roundels, with a raised stage at one end. It holds 200 for a reception and adjoins the Council Room, so the two can run as a single evening.
Council Room
PrivateMahogany panelling, Corinthian pilasters and a glazed dome that drops daylight into the middle of the room. It takes 140 standing, and is the space the venue puts receptions in, either on its own or opened through to Cowdray Hall next door.
Annie Altschul & Agnes Hunt
PrivateThe two first-floor rooms with the retractable wall between them drawn back, giving one long daylit space for 100 standing. The windows look over Oxford Street.
Rosalind Paget
PrivateA third-floor room over a quiet courtyard, bright and wide enough to reset between layouts. It holds 60 standing.
Annie Altschul
PrivateOne half of the divisible first-floor pair, looking over Oxford Street. Natural daylight, flexible layouts, 40 standing.
Agnes Hunt
PrivateThe other half of the same first-floor pair, also over Oxford Street, taking 40 standing.
Marjorie Simpson
PrivateA ground-floor room over Oxford Street, a few steps from the Hall and the Council Room. Daylit, flexible in layout, 32 standing.
Peggy Nuttall
PrivateA long first-floor room looking over Oxford Street, with daylight down one side. Suited to a seminar or a working breakout alongside a larger event.
Edith Cavell
PrivateA bright third-floor room on to Cavendish Square, small enough to feel private and quick to reconfigure between sessions.
Sarah Swift
PrivateOak panelling, chandeliers and windows running nearly the full height of the wall, around a fixed table on the ground floor. The handsomest of the smaller rooms.
Jean McFarlane
PrivateA ground-floor room with a chimneypiece, an overmantel mirror and period joinery, arranged around a fixed table for fourteen.
Mona Grey
PrivatePanelled walls, a fireplace and a brass chandelier over a fixed table for twelve, on the ground floor with daylight.
Mary Seacole
PrivateA small, bright third-floor room over Cavendish Square, laid out as a fixed table for ten.
Florence Nightingale
PrivateThird floor, on to the square, with a fixed oval table for ten and daylight from the front of the building.
Betsi Cadwaladr
PrivateThe smallest room in the building: a fixed table for eight on the third floor, looking on to Cavendish Square.
/ Perfect For
/ Features
AV Equipment
- – Sound System
- – Stage
- – Projector
- – Microphone
- – Wireless Microphone
Catering
- – Bespoke Menus
- – Canape Service
- – Private Bar
Venue Specs
- – Dedicated Events Team
- – Wheelchair Accessible
- – Cloakroom
- – High-Speed Wi-Fi
- – Load-In Access
- – Private Entrance
/ Getting Here
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