Two Temple Place

Two Temple Place stands on the Victoria Embankment where the Strand meets the river, a neo-Gothic mansion completed in 1895 for William Waldorf Astor and designed by the Gothic Revival architect John Loughborough Pearson. Astor built it as his estate office and spared nothing on the interiors; the house is now cared for by the Bulldog Trust, which opens it for an annual exhibition of public collections and lets it privately the rest of the year.

The Great Hall is the centrepiece, a double-height room beneath a hammerbeam roof of Spanish mahogany, lined with carved panelling, gilded figures from Walter Scott's Ivanhoe and stained glass. It seats up to 120 for dinner and holds 150 for a reception, over a parquet floor that clears for dancing. On the ground floor the Lower Gallery matches those numbers, while the first-floor Library takes a more intimate party of around 30 seated. Linking them is the Staircase Hall, where a carved mahogany staircase rises under a stained-glass laylight, its bannisters peopled with characters from The Three Musketeers, Astor's favourite book.

The house is let for exclusive use only, so a party has the whole building, served by its own gated entrance off the Embankment. Catering and production come through the venue's accredited suppliers and its in-house events team, and the music and lighting are specified to suit the room rather than fixed as a permanent install. It suits a seated dinner that opens into dancing, a reception spread across the floors, or a wedding licensed through to the early hours.