L'oscar London

L'oscar occupies the former headquarters of the Baptist Union on Southampton Row, a Grade II* listed Edwardian building reworked into a 39-room hotel by the decorator Jacques Garcia. His treatment is deliberately theatrical: oak panelling, gilded plasterwork, deep colour and the alabaster parrot lamps that recur throughout. The hotel sits in Holborn, between Bloomsbury and Covent Garden.

Events centre on the restored 1856 chapel, now The Baptist, an octagonal room that rises to a glazed dome, with a bar on the ground floor and dining beneath the dome above. Two further spaces sit within the listed building: The Library on the second floor, lined with oak panels, rare books and Venetian masks beneath a painted peacock, and The Committee Room on the first floor, with its original 1903 Royal Doulton terracotta fireplace and a vaulted hand-plastered ceiling. The kitchen sends French-leaning food and the bar runs a full cocktail list.

For a private evening the appeal is the contrast of rooms under one roof. The chapel takes a standing reception of up to 180, or a seated dinner that opens out for music later, while the Library and Committee Room suit smaller dinners and receptions. A dedicated events team handles food, drink and production, and sound is arranged on enquiry rather than fixed as a permanent installation.