Pan Pacific London

Pan Pacific London occupies the lower floors of a 43-storey bronze tower at Bishopsgate Plaza, a two-minute walk from Liverpool Street. The interiors are by Yabu Pushelberg, whose restrained palette of dark timber, marble and warm light runs from the ground-floor bar through to the private dining rooms above. The hotel takes its cues from modern Singapore, and that influence shapes both the cooking at Straits Kitchen and the social heart of the building, the Ginger Lily Bar & Lounge.

For intimate events the draw is the cluster of small, design-led rooms rather than the larger conference floors. Ginger Lily anchors the ground floor with a long marble bar, a moody lounge and an outdoor terrace, available for semi-private or exclusive hire. A short flight up sit three private dining rooms, Maxwell, Newton and Katong, each with floor-to-ceiling glazing onto the City. Maxwell is the largest and the one built for entertaining, with its own reception area, a built-in audio system, a Champagne wall and a glass door that seals the room off.

The smaller meeting and creative rooms carry the same finish as the guest floors, with backlit shelving, velvet seating and City views, and work well for receptions and after-work gatherings without the scale of the Pacific Ballroom. Across the venue the rooms are sound-treated, air-conditioned and served by an in-house events team, which makes a DJ-led drinks reception in Ginger Lily or a dinner with music in Maxwell straightforward to stage.