No. 30 Knightsbridge

No. 30 Knightsbridge is a townhouse on Pavilion Road, the street that runs behind Sloane Street, let for private events with 16 bedrooms and suites upstairs. Its rooms run from a marble-floored hall to a panelled library, a first-floor ballroom and a roof garden, and the house takes up to 320 guests standing across its floors.

The building has a long party history. By the house’s own account, it was a London Electricity Board power station and warehouse when Searcys acquired it in 1963. A member of the Searcy family turned it into a private residence, restored closely enough to the period to serve as a location for the 1963 film Tom Jones. Its pine panelling came from a Fleet Street family house. Through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, as 30 Pavilion Road, it was one of the addresses London used for society weddings and private parties.

Searcys is one of the house’s preferred caterers. On the first floor the Library, the Ante Room and the Anne Machin Ballroom open into one another and seat up to 120 for dinner, while the Gallery Bar looks down over the Great Hall. The Monet Roof Terrace takes 80 standing for summer receptions, and the bedrooms sleep up to 30, so a wedding party or a residential conference can stay in the house.