RHS Lindley Hall

Lindley Hall is a single Edwardian room on a quiet garden square behind Westminster, and it is one of the largest pillar-free floors in central London. It opened in 1904 as the Royal Horticultural Society's exhibition hall and is still owned by the Society, which hires it out when it is not showing plants.

The room is a barrel vault of glass and steel over white plaster arcading, with an oak dado at waist height and a parquet floor. Nothing interrupts the span, so the hall takes whatever is built inside it: 630 at dinner without a reception, 650 standing, 480 for a dinner dance, 500 for a fashion show with a runway down the middle. Because the roof is entirely glazed it reads as daylight by day and as whatever colour is thrown at the walls after dark.

It is a blank canvas rather than a decorated room, which is the point. Fashion houses stage collections here, awards ceremonies drape it, and drinks receptions use the bare floor. In-house AV covers an intelligent lighting system, pin spots, uplighters and a PA for announcements; everything else is brought in.

The Society's second hall, Lawrence Hall on Greycoat Street, was leased to Westminster School in 2011 and is no longer hired by the RHS.