Why Royal Lancaster London should be on your events radar
The 18-floor, 411 room Royal Lancaster London is one of the capital's premier conference venues. M&IT editor Paul Harvey took a refresher course.
It’s been at least 10 years since I was last in Royal Lancaster London – so it was high time I checked in again with one of the capital’s leading conference and events hotels.
Since I last visited the hotel has undergone an extensive £85m refurb (to mark its 50th anniversary in 2017), and that cash injection has shored up its spot in the marketplace. The accompanying name change has also helped, going from the Lancaster London to the more familiar Royal Lancaster, while also upping from a four-star to a five-star property in the process.
Walking into the hotel, the red carpets and dark wood of old have been ripped out to create a wonderfully palatial lobby decked out in white Carrera marble. The gold reception desk has true wow factor, making for a memorable first impression.
Royal Lancaster London’s opulent, top floor suites are one of its main attractions, providing some of the best views of London you are ever likely to encounter. On entering, you can’t help but be drawn to the window to goggle at the cityscape laid out before you like your own personal Monopoly board.
Once you’ve finished gawping (“Oooh, there’s Big Ben!”), you’ll finally get chance to take in the lavish surroundings – and make no mistake, these rooms drip with finesse. The Royal Suite is the most spectacular suite, but they’re all decked out to such a high standard it’s actually a little overwhelming: think wood-panelled walls, marble baths, plush sofas, and statement chandeliers.
Helpfully for families, you can add on an adjoining room to most of the suites to accommodate extra people. My daughter absolutely loved the fuss the hotel made of her, she was treated like royalty from start to finish.
The highlight of the hotel’s dining options is the Nipa Thai restaurant, serving up some of the most authentic Thai food in the capital with a traditional all-Thai, all-female kitchen team. Head chef Sanguan Parr has been at the helm for more than 25 years, turning out Thai classics in the warm and inviting teak-panelled dining room including massaman curry, fried rice dishes and a signature pad Thai. The specials live up to the name too, my surf and turf fried rice involved juicy rib eye steak and huge tiger prawns served with a rice-filled pineapple.
In the morning, we couldn’t resist having breakfast served in the room – we wanted to make the most of our amazing view of London. Freshly-baked pastries, a steaming pot of tea and an exemplary full English set us up for the day in style.
When it comes to conferences and events, Royal Lancaster London plays host to some of the best hotel spaces in Europe. The Nine Kings Suite is a spectacular, pillarless venue for everything from product launches and conferences to gala dinners and exhibitions, with room for 1,150 seated and 1,500 standing.
The suite, named in honour of the nine kings of the House of Lancaster, has its own dedicated entrance and registration area on the ground floor, with flexible branding opportuinties throughout.
With bags of natural daylight, the Nine Kings also boasts a fully flexible LED lighting system and vehicle access straight into the room – unsurprisingly, this has resulted in the suite being popular for car launches.
The Nine Kings has a capacity of 650 for dinner, with service in about 16 minutes flat, while for conferences it can partition into four, lending itself to myriad options and possibilities. At the turn of a key, the retractable wall can disappear making a grand reveal, complete with haze machine and whatever bells and whistles you care to throw at it, a popular option to add a touch of theatre to proceedings.
Royal Lancaster London is a rarity in the capital in that it has two ballrooms, with the 1,200-capcity Westbourne Suite offering technically-advanced light, sound and visual technology, making it perfect for events with elaborate production requirements.
The suite, named after one of London’s hidden underground rivers, can seat 800 for dinner depending on stage and set, and crucially has its own kitchen, meaning the Nine Kings and the Westbourne can both host events concurrently.
While the Nine Kings and the Westbourne Suite are Royal Lancaster London's bread and butter, the beautifully designed Forest Suites on the first floor provide for smaller scale presentations, meetings and gatherings with dramatic wall-to-ceiling views over Hyde Park. The spaces range from catering for up to 200 in the Beech Suite, through to 12-16 in the elegant wood-panelled Boardroom.
The hotel addresses the evolving needs of planners with its XR Mixed Reality Production Studio, bringing hybrid, virtual, and live events into the equation.
Behind the check-in desk you can peek through to the hotel’s café restaurant which serves high-end coffee and cakes up until midday and then from 2pm onwards it’s all about afternoon tea. The cafe is currently in a partnership with the National History Museum focusing on bees, with a ‘pollinator-inspired’ Blooming British Afternoon Tea.
Given Royal Lancaster London was one of the first hotels in London to put a honey farm on the roof, more than a decade ago, the partnership makes perfect sense.
The hotel does have an in-house gym, but really the more appealing option is to head over the road to Hyde Park to walk or run off any afternoon tea excesses. Plus, you might even bump into a Hollywood star also flexing their muscles in London's biggest green space (Minnie Driver, since you're asking).
Lancaster Gate tube station is right underneath the hotel, making it feel like the property has its very own private tube access. It’s also just seven minutes walk from Paddington, bringing national rail services, the Heathrow Express and the Elizabeth line into play – and from a conference point of view, the international market.
Hyde Park
Hyde Park
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