Few London venues can claim a guest list quite like this one. A tavern has stood on Great Queen Street since 1775, and the Freemasons’ Tavern that occupied this site was where the Geological Society was founded in 1807, where the World Anti-Slavery Convention met in 1840, and where, on 26 October 1863, a handful of clubs sat down and invented the Football Association. Most of the tavern came down in 1909 and was replaced over the following decades by the building you see now, which took the name the Connaught Rooms.
What that gave London is a Grade II* listed pile of grand Georgian architecture and art-deco interiors standing exactly halfway between Covent Garden and Holborn, five minutes from either tube station. Inside it is unapologetically theatrical: arched and ornately plastered ceilings, deep wood panelling, marble, and chandeliers hung on a scale that makes people stop in the doorway. There are 37 event spaces in all, from executive rooms with their original features intact to a fifth-floor roof terrace that comes into its own on a summer evening.
The room everyone comes for is the Grand Hall, which holds up to 750 theatre-style and as many as 1,500 for a drinks reception, and which is about as close as central London gets to a genuine ballroom. For a wedding it means you can put a ceremony, a reception and a dinner-dance in one building without anybody being asked to walk anywhere, and for a corporate party or an awards night it means you can invite the whole company and still have room for a dancefloor.
Where the band plays
The Grand Hall is built for performance, with the height and the sightlines to carry a big line-up and a room that looks its best when it’s lit for a party rather than a conference. A larger band with brass suits it — anything too pared-back can get lost under those ceilings once several hundred people are in. The smaller suites are a different proposition altogether and reward something intimate: a jazz trio or a pianist during a drinks reception, with the main act saved for the hall.
How the evening runs
Finish times are agreed with the events team rather than published as one rule for the whole building, so pin down your end time and check whether live music is expected to stop a little before the bar does — a listed building in the middle of the West End usually has a view. Load-in is central London, which is to say it needs planning: agree an access time and a route in advance, because a van cannot simply sit on Great Queen Street. The upside is that when the night ends, everyone is already exactly where they want to be.
Bands available in London and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in London.
- London Wedding Bands
- London Events Bands
- Tribute Acts in London
- Wedding DJs in London
- Corporate Entertainment in London
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters Explained. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.