Oxford and Cambridge Club

The Oxford and Cambridge Club has stood at 71 Pall Mall since 1838, in a Grade II* listed clubhouse designed by Sir Robert Smirke for alumni of the two universities. The rooms are the ones a London club is supposed to have and rarely still does: a Coffee Room that serves as the principal dining room, three libraries holding more than 20,000 volumes, two bars, a drawing room, a Smoking Room under a pair of chandeliers, and a roof terrace that looks across the Mall. In 1952 the club absorbed 77 Pall Mall next door, the former home of Princess Marie Louise, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and her drawing room survives as its grandest event space.

Hire runs through a member. The club's banqueting team takes bookings from members and from members of its reciprocal clubs, and handles everything from a lunch for a dozen to a formal dinner for 150. Four dedicated function rooms carry the programme. The Princess Marie Louise Room is the one to ask for: 39 feet of red damask and gilding under an ornate plaster ceiling, seating 55 at long tables and holding 75 for a reception. The Marlborough Room is the flexible one, with kitchen access for fine dining, a built-in PA and the club's fullest presentation kit. The King Edward VII Room is the smallest and the most charming, Cope's portrait of the king looking out over a Victorian mahogany table. The St James's Room takes meetings.

One thing to know before you plan a night here. The club's own room specifications record music as not permitted in its function rooms, and the banqueting team lists musicians, singers and a piano among the things it will source rather than a DJ setup. This is a room for a seated dinner, a reception and a speech, not for a dancefloor. The Coffee Room and the Smoking Room can be taken in the evening by arrangement, and the Drawing Room works as a reception space before guests go through to dine.