Venue Review

Character: Understated and elegant with 1930s modernist flavour.

Funky Features: Designer destination with views of Tower Bridge, the City and Canary Wharf; design classics as event backdrop and to sit on; toilets designed by Australian design star, Marc Newson.

Location and History

The Design Museum was founded in 1989 in a banana warehouse close to Tower Bridge. This simple and beautiful Modernist building is 10 minutes walk east of London Bridge tube station. Described by fashion designer Paul Smith as “the natural home for everyone who has ever enjoyed or appreciated design”, the Design Museum is an ideal location for the event planner looking to convey a sense of refined style

Interior

Conran and Partners’ conversion of a 1950s warehouse was described by one architecture critic in 1989 as ‘cool and logical, a counterblast to the feverish and feeble sub-vernacular styling which is almost de rigueur in Docklands’. Certainly this is a building, which makes the most of its riverside views to create a space that is simple, dramatic and beautifully detailed.

Spaces for Hire

Riverside Hall is the street-level space that welcomes visitors during the daytime, and houses the gallery’s shop and café. By night, the shop retracts on casters and the café can be concealed with a simple curtain. If required, the café doubles up as a kitchen capable – when the museum is full to capacity – of keeping up to 400 guests canapé-happy.  Typically, the capacity of Riverside Hall is 250 guests for a reception, 80 guests for dinner.

Up a level, the Contemporary Design Gallery is one of the most beautiful galleries in London. Surrounded by iconic design pieces from the 20th and 21st-century, up to 100 guests (for receptions and dinners) can take in the jaw-slackening panoramic of the Thames, encompassing London Bridge, Tower Bridge, and the imposingly spectacular roofscape of the City.

Serious view-seekers might wish to hire the Design Museum Space on the next level up. If there were ever a blank canvas of a venue, this is it: a large empty space (including a riverside balcony) in neutral colours that is capable of hosting all manner events for up to 200 people. 

The Design Museum can equip any event with a selection of Eames chairs, Internet access, all manner of technical support and an efficient team of in-house caterers.