London is the most expensive venue market in either country served here and the one with the widest spread inside a single postcode. The same evening can cost four figures or almost nothing depending on whether you are in a livery hall, a Shoreditch warehouse, a pub upstairs or a borough community centre, and the four are within a few miles of each other.
Ask three suppliers for a price
Corporate event venues London: the City, the West End and the East
The Square Mile is a corporate market: livery halls, private members' clubs and bank buildings that price a whole evening and are busiest Monday to Thursday, which is why a Saturday in the City is often cheaper than a Wednesday. The West End and Soho are a restaurant and bar market priced on minimum spend. East London and the fringes are the space market, warehouses, studios and railway arches by the hour. Which of the three you are shopping in decides the pricing model before anything else does.
Cheap small party venue hire London, and the small party venues London nobody lists
Borough community centres, church halls, scout huts, sports and social clubs and the function rooms of ordinary pubs are the cheapest hireable rooms in London by a wide margin, and almost none of them appears on a venue marketplace. They are booked by telephone or through the council's own hall hire page, they are priced by the hour, and the good ones are busy. A council's hall hire list is the single most useful page in this market and almost nobody looks at it.
Outdoor event space London and outdoor venue hire London: gardens, roof terraces and parks
Outdoor space in London is either a garden attached to a venue, a roof terrace, or a licensed area of a park hired from the borough or the Royal Parks. Terraces carry wind limits and curfews that are stricter than the room below them, and park hire needs a permit with its own guest cap and noise conditions. Ask what happens to the booking if the terrace is closed on the day, because that answer separates the venues that have thought about it from the ones that have not.
The transport and finish time problem
A London venue's finish time is set by its licence and by the borough, and boroughs differ sharply: the same kind of room can close at eleven in a residential street and at three in an entertainment area. That single fact decides more about a London party than the room does. Ask for the licensed finish time and the time the building must be empty, and check the last trains for the guests you have, because a magnificent room that empties at eleven thirty is a shorter evening than it looks.
Questions people ask about wedding venues in London
Why are London venues for corporate events cheaper on a Saturday?
In the City and Canary Wharf the market is corporate and midweek is peak. A livery hall or a members' club can be materially cheaper on a Saturday than on a Wednesday, which is the reverse of the rest of the market.
Where is the cheapest venue hire in London?
Borough community centres, church halls, sports and social clubs and pub function rooms, none of which advertise on venue marketplaces. Councils publish their own hall hire lists and they are the most useful page in this market.
What decides how late a London venue can go?
Its premises licence and the borough's policy, which vary sharply between a residential street and a designated entertainment area. Ask for the licensed finish time and the time the building must be empty.
What are private party venues London, and where are the cheap ones?
A private party venue is any room you take exclusively for the evening, and in London the cheapest of them are not on a venue marketplace at all. Borough community centres, church halls, scout huts, sports and social clubs and the function rooms of ordinary pubs are let by the hour or against a bar spend, and most are booked by telephone or through the council's own hall hire page. Ask whether the room has its own door and whether the venue will seat other customers in it, because that is what makes a room private rather than a corner of one.