Dartmouth House

Dartmouth House stands behind a stone facade on Charles Street, a few minutes from Berkeley Square. The original building went up in the mid-18th century and was remodelled into a Mayfair mansion by Lord Revelstoke late in the following century; it served as a Red Cross hospital through the First World War, and has been the home of the English-Speaking Union since the charity bought it in 1926. The Grade II listed interiors survive largely intact — a Robert Adam fireplace in the Long Drawing Room, a painted ceiling by Pierre-Victor Galland above the Belgian marble staircase, rococo plasterwork carrying the Dartmouth family crest.

The first-floor rooms are the reason to hire it. The Long Drawing Room, the Small Drawing Room and the Churchill Room interconnect, so they work as one enfilade or as three separate spaces; taken together with the rest of the house they hold 350 for a standing reception and 150 seated. The Churchill Room was the house's ballroom, and still reads as one: floor-to-ceiling Louis XIV walnut panelling, a coffered dome, a bare wooden floor. Behind the building sits a walled courtyard with a fountain and wrought-iron furniture, which takes 150 on its own.

The house is licensed for civil ceremonies and works through awards dinners, corporate receptions, launches and weddings. Catering is in-house, by Graysons, and external caterers are not admitted. Evening hire runs to 11.30pm.