Haberdashers' Hall

Haberdashers' Hall stands at 18 West Smithfield, a 2002 building by Michael Hopkins and Partners for the 650-year-old Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, and the first new livery hall built in the Square Mile in almost forty years. A brick-piered colonnade wraps a central courtyard and orangery, echoing the geometry of a Renaissance cloister, while the diagonal oak-and-steel ceiling over the Livery Hall reworks the pitch of a medieval banqueting roof in contemporary materials.

The Livery Hall is the principal room, holding up to 350 on a standing reception or 174 seated at round tables beneath the exposed timber grid, and one member's own account of her wedding recalls the DJ setting up at the far end of the hall with the dance floor laid out in front of it. The Court Room, Luncheon Room and Committee Room are smaller, oak-panelled spaces hung with portraits of past Masters, suited to private dinners and meetings. A stone spiral staircase climbs to the Reception Gallery, a first-floor space that looks down over the courtyard for a drinks reception.

The Orangery and Courtyard, taken together, give the venue its largest capacity, up to 400 on a reception, opening onto the lawn where sculptures by Henry Moore, Lynn Chadwick and Eduardo Paolozzi sit among the planting. The whole building is available for exclusive hire, or each room separately, with in-house catering from Seasoned and an alcohol licence to 23:00.