Funky Venues

Venue Review

Character: Exquisite Georgian town house, complete with historic vaults modified with slick hi-tech architecture.

Funky Features: Beautifully restored basement-level bare brick vaults, adjustable lighting, state of the art professional kitchen,epic painted walls in the Great Room, a stretch of cobbled street in the Durham Street Auditorium, the historic Adelphi Room, where Dickens wrote The Pickwick Papers.

Location and History

The RSA building was constructed in the late 18th century, and was designed by neo-classical master Robert Adam specifically to house the Royal Society – a meeting point for disciples of the arts, engineering and sciences. 

Situated just south of the Strand in central London, the RSA can be accessed from either Charing Cross (for rail and tube passengers) or Embankment station (tube only). Cabs and bus routes are also plentiful on the Strand.

Interior

The RSA has been extensively modified, but its key original features have been carefully preserved. Unlike some of London’s ‘dustier’ institutions, the interior is as plush as that of a high-end boutique hotel and replete with all the technological components of a leading conference centre. The basement-level Vaults rank among the most versatile for-hire spaces in London. These beautifully restored and maintained former wine storage cellars feature bare brick, adjustable lighting and a state of the art professional kitchen. Other features include epic painted walls in the Great Room, a stretch of cobbled street in the Durham Street Auditorium and the historic Adelphi Room, where Dickens wrote The Pickwick Papers.

Spaces for Hire

The RSA offers eight for-hire spaces in total providing something for almost every need, and its level of panache makes the RSA an ideal location for those seeking a venue with both style and cultural cachet. The rooms are typically for hire from 0900 – 1700, and from 1800 – 2300. Although the RSA does not allow external caterers, they have an in-house catering operation that can work to specific briefs. 

The Great Room is the RSA’s pride and joy. This is where in 1777 the painter James Barry started work on a painting entitled The Progress of Human Knowledge, completing the epic work in 1801. Today, the painting dominates the upper walls of the room, and – whilst the sun is up - it is illuminated by the daylight from the glass skylight. The Great Room is a truly spectacular space, and can accommodate 200 people in (fixed) theatre-style seating. It is equipped with a Sanyo XP40 LCD projector for both data and professional format video projection.

The Benjamin Franklin Room is suitable for up to 150 guests. This is an elegant room ideal for those looking to entertain a significant number of people without losing intimacy. With views over the Strand from the vast windows, two original Adams fireplaces and a glittering regency chandelier, the room has proven popular with those hosting dinners and receptions. 

The Durham Street Auditorium is perfect for anyone looking to conduct seminars, screenings and presentations on a smaller scale than the Great Room. It is decked out with theatre-style seating for 60, and is a cavernous, stylish auditorium with a strong sense of history: the rear of the room features a stretch of 17th century cobbled roadway.

The Adelphi Room is famous for being the writing room in which the Dickens novel The Pickwick Papers was composed. Once the nucleus of 18th century café society, the room is known for hosting meetings of intellectuals and cultural luminaries. The Adelphi room can happily accommodate between 28 -50 guests depending on the configuration of the seating. 

The Romney Room is adjacent to the Adelphi Room and the two are connected by a door, and thus hireable as a pair. The Romney Room features an original Adam ceiling, and beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows. In itself, it is an ideal location for intimate dinners and drinks receptions (for up to 40 people), or board meetings (for up to 20 people).

Amongst the more pared-down of the for-hire spaces in the RSA, The Tavern Room is a simple boardroom suitable for presentations, meetings, receptions and dinners. It has wooden floors and an Adam ceiling of a rather less elaborate kind than those elsewhere in the RSA. The Tavern Room can comfortably accommodate up to 50 guests.

The Folkestone Room is a small but neat boardroom well suited to meetings and dinners for up to 14 guests. It could also be used in addition to one of the larger spaces for group focus and ‘breakout’ sessions.

The Vaults are four separate spaces of varying size. They are situated at the lowest level of the RSA, and can be used to generate an atmosphere of intimacy, grand-scale celebration or anything in between. You can hire any combination of the four Vaults which are sometimes used for weddings with the walkway that the links them serving as the perfect ‘aisle’. The vaults are also the only area within the RSA where live music is permitted.