Funky Venues

Venue Review

Character: Lovingly restored steel-framed Edwardian dance hall reborn as elegant, quirky and atmospheric music venue.

Funky Features: Access to excellent live music. Elaborate Edwardian plasterwork. Suntrap roof terrace off upstairs bar.

Location and History

Bush Hall is five minutes walk from Shepherds Bush tube. The building began its life as the setting for a real life Edwardian fairy tale. The Bush, or the Carlton Dance Hall, as it was originally called, was commissioned by the wealthy publisher W.C Hurndall who gave his daughters Lillian, Eugenie and Olive a lavishly appointed dance hall each to play with. The Bush - the only one of the trio to have survived the years intact - was fittingly its creator’s favourite. Hurndall apparently lived with his mistress in an apartment above the bar.

Interior

When big dance venues fell from fashion, Bush Hall found alternative employment as a wartime soup kitchen, a 60s bingo hall and rehearsal space for ‘local west London talent’ including Adam Faith, the Who and Cliff Richard. It ended the 20th century as an upmarket snooker club.  Since its restoration and relaunch as a music venue in 2001, the Bush Hall has visitors who appreciate its lavish interior again. That the cherubs, vines, and inlaid Corinthian columns survived at all owes much to to the durability of the building’s pioneering steel girder construction and more than a bit of luck.

Spaces for Hire

At full capacity Bush Hall can hold 350. The whole building is available for hire and private events can be organised in either of the two bars, with bar service until 1am. The downstairs bar has an informal lived in character with distressed green leather stools and a comfortingly worn wooden bar. (Fits 80 guests). Upstairs brown leather and red velvet vintage sofas and chairs, a granite topped bar, marble floors and mirrored walls provide a shabby chic elegance (50 guests).

Bush Hall is already a music venue with a strong reputation for showcasing emerging talent - Amy Winehouse, Lilly Allen and the Kings of Leon all played here early in their careers - and it has become a venue favoured for special insiders’ gigs, and record company promotions. Today it is an increasingly popular venue for product launches, conferences, private parties and adventurous wedding receptions.