The Ivy Club

It opened in September 2008 above a restaurant that has traded on West Street since 1917, and is entered through a flower shop rather than a door carrying its name. Caprice Holdings is the proprietor, admission is settled by a membership committee, and the membership itself comes largely from the arts, media and business. The interiors are Art Deco, with work by Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin on the walls. The Piano Bar is the first room members reach, with resident musicians through the evening; the Drawing Room dines above it and keeps a small private room, The Library, at the rear.

The Loft has the top floor, under its harlequin windows, with the club's roof terrace off it. It seats 30 at one long table, 50 across five rounds or 40 in theatre rows, and holds 100 standing; the club lists it for canapé parties and press launches as readily as for a screening, a wedding reception or a plain supper. The Private Room, above the restaurant, is the larger of the two seated, at 60 on rounds or 32 at a long table, with the same 100 standing. Oak panelling and a bar sit under the stained glass.

Both rooms are booked through the Ivy Collection's events team on an open enquiry rather than through the membership office, and the published hire terms set no membership condition; that team handles the menus and the run of the evening. Around the hire sits a members' house that behaves like one. Phones are kept to reception and the fourth floor, photography is not permitted inside, and the rules ask that nothing said in the club reaches the press. Dress is smart casual.