London Transport Museum

The museum occupies the old Victorian flower market on the east side of Covent Garden Piazza, and the hire space is the building itself: an iron-and-glass hall under a barrel roof, with the collection still in it. Guests eat between a Routemaster, a 1930s Tube car and a Victorian horse bus, and the ironwork takes colour well, which is why almost every photograph of a dinner here is lit blue.

The galleries hold 230 at round tables and 600 standing across three floors, and there is a Cubic Theatre alongside for a screening or a presentation, tiered on 110 moquette seats with 4K playback and surround sound. The Board Room next to it is soundproofed and seats 40 in cabaret.

One thing to plan around: the museum does not hire during the day. Guests arrive from 18:30 once the public has gone, or between 07:30 and 09:30 before it opens. Evening events run to 23:00 with a licence until 01:00. Catering comes from an approved list rather than a single in-house kitchen, so the menu is genuinely open.