Ironmongers' Hall

Ironmongers' Hall stands on Shaftesbury Place, tucked beside the Barbican and the Museum of London, on the site the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers has occupied since the fifteenth century. The Court Room's stained glass still holds panes taken from the Company's first hall of 1457. The current building is younger: the previous hall was destroyed by a bomb in July 1917, and this Tudor-revival replacement, built by Holland, Hannen & Cubitts, opened on the same plot in June 1925. It reads like a country house set down in the Square Mile, oak panelling, heraldic stained glass and crystal chandeliers throughout, without the corporate conference-centre feel of some of its neighbours.

The Banqueting Hall is the venue's principal room: a barrel-vaulted plasterwork ceiling, chandeliers, and oak panelling inset with the arms of past Masters, closed at one end by a stained-glass window recording the Company's connections to the Crown and the City's Lord Mayors. It seats 160 for dinner or takes 230 standing, and doubles as a conference space. Upstairs, the Drawing Room holds the largest surviving William Morris woven wall hanging in the country in place of wallpaper, alongside a library wall and a working fireplace, a warmer room for a reception or a smaller dinner. The ground-floor Court Room and Luncheon Room are smaller again, each with its own stained-glass window and panelling; a paved courtyard with a fountain sits at the centre of the building for a reception in fair weather.

Private hire runs through the Company's own events team; the Hall is available most weekdays and Saturdays for weddings, dinners, receptions and conferences across its five rooms.