It's DH's 50th birthday soon - ideas for a London party venue, pretty pleeeaase??

[tiddlypom]

He works in the city, so I'd like to organise an after-work drinks and nibbles thing, I think. But where?

Depends what you want to spend, but how about a boat? Would be really special.

Thanks, I had wondered about that. Good for older kids - they'd enjoy it. Any idea how much it would be, roughly? My one concern is that people can't come and go as they please, but then again that could be good news.

Oh, I see, quite pricey. So it'd have to be a bit like a wedding reception, definite commitment to come, etc. Altho we could have a reserve list for last minute cancellations. I like the idea - not sure about dh tho. I wondered about museums. He is a geeky science bloke.

You can hire the HMS Belfast for functions.

Have no idea how much it costs but it's a bit different than your average venue and even your average boat.

If you like the boat idea, but are concerned about actually floating down the Thames, what about the Queen Mary? It's docked at Waterloo bridge (embankment side) permamently so people can come and go and renting it is relatively cheap - so are the drinks. You can rent parts of it or the whole thing which is nice too.

There's the Royal Institute too. Very geeky sciencey

Sorry should have been Royal Institution.

the rivoli ballroom is a fantastic venue!
www.therivoli.co.uk/

Have you done stuff at the Royal Institution, Stripes? He is a member, natch. But the restaurant gets slated in every review I've read.

Thanks, OhBling, I'll check out the Queen Mary - good location, and 'cheap' sounds just the ticket. I'd like loadsa people, ideally, hence quest for cheapness. I'll also check out The Rivoli, HollyBunda.

Oh, now I have to admit that the only thing we've done there is go and see a screening of The Wrath of Khan

DP is a big trekkie ( oh gawd, he's an accountant too, my street cred just ran screaming from the building!)

So I have no idea if they're any good or not I'm afraid, sorry.

What a shame, it would have been the perfect place but would be spoiled if the food is poo.

The other museums must have function rooms too. Does DH have a favourite?

We had a party on the queen mary and although there was a minimum spend, if you've got enough people, it's not excessive. And drinks were wonderfully cheap. I think we paid about £20pp for a bbq and then drinks on top which were really good - the house champagne was about £25 and the wine we were drinking was around £12 a bottle I think. If you had nibbles rather than a full on meal, Im' sure it would be cheaper...?

Um. He goes to the science museum a fair bit. But I'm hoping for central London not sarf Ken. The reviewers might not be right about the RI food, and they must've had to buck their ideas up a bit by now, fingers crossed. I think I will still follow it up. But the Queen Mary is also calling me...
Actually I've just thought about London Zoo as well! I could leave him and all his geeky neeky friends there.

Oh, that's a lot cheaper than the Silver Fleet costs, OhBling. Will deffo have a look.

If he's in the city, how about something in the city itself? Lots of the city guilds and worshipful companies have great halls that they hire out for functions - we had our wedding at Skinners Hall which was fab.

It had one of the best addresses I have come across - 8 1/2 Dowgate Hill, City of London

It's url is www.skinnershall.com/welcome.html

You can hire just rooms or the whole place, there is some nice outside space too, really feels like you go through an archway into a secret garden almost. It was rebuilt after the fire of london I think so dates from around that time, it is big enough to be grand and special but small enough to be personal. We ended up there with relatively short notice for a wedding and they were happy to do a good deal.

There are plenty of other guild halls, do a quick google on them or I think the City of London Corporation's website has a list of them and other similar places availalble within the city.

eeek.

that was supposed to say

Its url is skinners hall.

Thanks for that, Zipzap, will definitely look into guild halls.

They have private karaoke rooms at Imperial China - it can sound a bit scary as most people can't sing (myself definitely included!), but honestly it was one of the best nights I've ever had!
You hire a room, have dinner and drinks (for Dutch Courage), and when you feel like it, start singing along to the karaoke. By the end of it, people are grabbing the microphone off each other to get another turn!

The Blue Print Cafe above the Design Museum has lovely views of tower bridge.

Or the restaurant at the top of Swiss Re building...although that is probably expensive.

Or Dim T at More London www.dimt.co.uk/ uhm...there seems to be a 'views' theme emerging