Venue Hire London
Toynbee Hall
The Ashbee Hall
Decorated by Arts & Crafts designer C R Ashbee and his students in 1887, this historic room provides a bright, artistic space for conferences, training sessions and board meetings. The Ashbee Hall was fully restored in 2018 and is now available for hire for both corporate and private events.
Capacity
Theatre: 60 people
Board meetings: 30 people
Full cabaret: 40 people
Room size
97 SQM
Facilities
Internet: High speed Wifi
Parking: Available off-site
Disabled access
Air conditioning
Furniture: standard table and chairs
Cloak rails
Lectern (subject to availability)
Equipment: Audio-visual, video projector and large screens.
Originally used as a dining room for Toynbee Hall’s first residential volunteers, the Ashbee Hall is located on the ground floor of our grade II listed building. The room features lattice windows, mullioned surrounds and a marble fireplace, exuding Victorian sophistication through its unique Arts & Crafts design. The walls are adorned with a “Tree of Life” motif encased in golden rondels and containing the letter “T”, which remains as the symbol of Toynbee Hall even now.
The original dining table was manufactured to Ashbee’s design and is still in use today.
The design of the table was conceived as a means to encourage debate by placing those seated around it in an informal manner. Made up of 6 pieces in total, the table is still incorporated in many of the events held here, continuing to bring people together.
Conference Room Hire
The Ashbee Hall can now be hired for small and medium corporate events. Thanks to its tall windows and ceilings, the Ashbee Hall boasts impressive acoustics and natural light, making it ideal for mini-conferences, board meetings and training sessions. We provide AV equipment including large screens and video projectors to ensure your corporate gathering or presentations is a complete success.
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Room Setup
Our dedicated events team can set the room up in different ways to suit the size and purpose of your event. Whether you’ll be running a presentation or training session, we will optimise the room layout theatre-style to ensure discussions are centred on the front. Alternatively, for board meetings and discussion groups we can provide you with our signature oval dining table.
Our conference chairs can be interlocked and the tables are both flip-tops and on wheels, meaning they’re easy to move around and store should your event require so.
The Ashbee Hall is conveniently connected to the Lecture Hall via internal doors, making it ideal for larger events, receptions or conferences.
Event Production
We can support you with the visual and atmospheric elements for your event; that includes everything from the AV/staging setup to the preparation of table plans and signage. As standard, we will always help you map out the guest journey and provide venue staffing to support you on the day.
If you’d like to involve Toynbee Hall (as a charity) in the event, we are happy to make introductions to our colleagues from relevant departments across the organisation, or arrange a welcome talk for your event.
Catering
We deliver a full catering service with a range of bespoke menus to match your requirements for any event hosted at Toynbee Hall. Speak to one of our team members and we’ll make the relevant arrangements.
Contact usFrequently Asked Questions
The Ashbee Hall is suitable for a wide range of events. At the moment we are able to cater for corporate functions, weddings and private events for the internal community.
We hope to be able to open The Ashbee Hall up to a wider range of private events in the near future!
No, The Ashbee Hall does not have a private entrance. However, the adjacent Meeting Room 1 does. If you require a private entrance you would be able to book both rooms to make use of it.
No, this is not possible. We provide excellent in house catering services if needed and are also open to liaising with a preferred caterer if required.
Charles Robert Ashbee was an architect and designer originally from Isleworth. He is regarded as a pioneer of the Victorian arts & crafts movement.
The room itself features the original dining table, built to his design, as well as all of the original wall decorations created by him and his students in 1897.
