Founders' Hall

Founders' Hall sits on Cloth Fair, on the Smithfield edge of the City, beside St Bartholomew the Great, London's oldest surviving church. It is the third hall built by the Worshipful Company of Founders, whose Royal Charter dates to 1614 and whose craft, casting metal in bronze and brass, has connected City tradesmen for over 650 years. The current building, designed by Sam Lloyd of Green, Lloyd and Adams and completed in 1987, replaced a hall lost in the Second World War; Historic England listed it Grade II in 2018 as one of the City's more distinctive post-modern livery halls, its yellow stock brick, terracotta panels and cast-aluminium plaques reading as a knowing update on Arts and Crafts tradition.

Inside, the Hall is the venue's principal room: high-level porthole windows look onto the churchyard garden next door, and City livery arms line the walls above a grid-panelled ceiling. It seats up to 80 for dinner or 100 standing, and doubles as a conference space with a screen and projector built in. The Parlour, on the ground floor, is a warmer, more traditional room for a drinks reception or as a break-out alongside the Hall, its cabinets holding pieces from the Company's own collection of cast metalwork alongside sculptor Charles Sargeant Jagger's maquettes for the Royal Artillery and Great Western Railway war memorials.

Private hire runs through the Hall's in-house caterer, Life's Kitchen; external catering is not permitted. A private lift also reaches Masters & Clerks, an intimate first-floor room for a boardroom meeting or a small dinner.