Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Theatre Royal Drury Lane has stood on Catherine Street since 1663, which makes it the oldest theatre site in continuous use anywhere in the world. The building you walk into now is the fourth on the plot, opened in 1812 to Benjamin Dean Wyatt's design and listed Grade I. Andrew Lloyd Webber bought it in 2000, closed it in 2019 for a £60 million restoration under architect Steve Tompkins, and reopened it in July 2021 with the Wyatt staircases, lost for a century, put back.

That restoration turned a set of Regency state rooms into event spaces in their own right, open daily rather than only on show nights. The Grand Saloon sits under chandeliers and green marble columns, seating 66 for dinner and taking up to 350 for a reception. Above it the Rotunda, modelled on the Pantheon in Rome, keeps the separate King's Side and Prince's Side entrances that survive from a quarrel between George III and his son, and now works as a champagne bar. The Cecil Beaton Bar, named for the photographer and costume designer, takes 54 seated or 70 standing on exclusive hire, and a planted open-air terrace looks over the Covent Garden rooftops.

For a private event the draw is the combination: a working 1,910-seat auditorium with in-house production behind it, and hospitality rooms that hold their own without it. Hire runs through the LW Theatres team, with auditorium events handled by a different desk from the saloons, bars and terraces. The rooms are licensed to 11pm, with extensions available by arrangement.