dial8

dial8 sits beneath Thirteen at the Charing Cross Road end of Denmark Street, reached not through the hotel but by its own door on Flitcroft Street, marked with little more than the name in gold script and a lantern. Downstairs the room is small, around 36 square metres, and finished in brass and tarnished mirror: a pressed-metal ceiling, a mirrored clerestory band running the length of the walls, a horseshoe bar clad in hammered metal, hexagonal stone underfoot and low chairs in scorched red velvet.

The offer is cocktails and Japanese-inflected small plates, run by the same team as the bar upstairs. Taken privately the room holds forty seated or fifty standing, with a semi-private snug table for a smaller group. The house describes it as built for playbacks, and it is used for listening sessions, screenings and closed-door meetings by day as readily as for a reception at night.

For a DJ-led night a basement does the useful thing, which is contain itself. There is a separate entrance, no passing trade, and private hire runs to 3am at weekends. Access is by stairs only. Launches, after-parties and receptions are the natural fit, and the events team books it directly.