The Walbrook Club

The Walbrook Club opened in 2000 in a Queen Anne-style townhouse set in its own court off Walbrook, next door to the Mansion House and a short walk from the Bank of England. The building went up as the family offices of the property developer Rudolph Palumbo, who had a hand in its design, and the third generation of the Palumbo family runs it now. Mark Birley, who made the interiors at Mark's Club, Harry's Bar and Annabel's, decorated the rooms, and Albert Roux ran the kitchens. It is the City's only family-run private members' club, and membership has been open to men and women on equal terms since the first day.

Four rooms take private events. The Dining Room is painted in the club's own pink and looks onto the garden of Wren's St Stephen Walbrook; it seats 50 and holds 70 standing, and reconfigures for a presentation as readily as for a dinner. The Bar carries a model of the 1920s Italian liner Saturnia above the counter, pours barrel-aged Negronis and skips the umbrellas. Two smaller rooms complete the set: the Green Room, papered in William Morris and hung with a Ben Johnson cityscape of the Cini Foundation in Venice, and the Oak Room on the lower ground floor, panelled in pale English oak, furnished by Mies van der Rohe and known to members as the M&A Room.

The club hires its rooms to members and to non-members, with a room hire fee for the latter. It opens Monday to Friday from 7.30am and holds a licence to 1am, with other days and hours by arrangement. The Dining Room and the Bar carry speakers, so a host can bring their own music, and the kitchen writes seasonal event menus to the occasion.