Venue Focus from Square Meal Venues & Events Magazine, Autumn 2007 - 'Six Appeal’

Address:	Wax Chandler's Hall, 6 Gresham Street EC2V 7AD
Tel	0870 780 8185
Fax:	020 7726 0610
Email:	Contact by email
Website:	Visit their website

Venue Focus from Square Meal Venues & Events Magazine, Autumn 2007 - 'Six Appeal’ Information:

Wax Chandlers Hall has emerged from refurbishments with a brand new look and name. Louise Troy attended the launch party and came back full of praise.

Number Six Gresham Street has been through a lot in its 506-year history. It was burnt down in the Great Fire of London, bombed in the Blitz and had a corner lopped off by Victorian town planners who wanted to make the street straight. Happily, its latest makeover into a top-class venue was markedly less traumatic.

After 12 months of intensive refurbishment, it opened its doors again on 6 September this year, and is beginning to make waves in the London event scene.

The building was formerly known as Wax Chandlers Hall, a name it got from its resident livery company – one of 107 quintessentially London institutions that have regulated and supported tradesmen in the City since the Middle Ages. These days, the companies are moving with the times (their number now includes information technologists and management consultants) and Number Six is only the latest hall to make the transition from stale to state-of-the-art. In the refurbishment, two of the venue’s rooms were knocked into one larger, more useful space; a new room was created downstairs; a cloakroom was added; and there is now air-con, active lighting control, a projector, blackout blinds and a loop system for the hard of hearing.

The building’s location reflects the delicate balance it strikes between the old and the new. Just minutes from St Paul’s Cathedral, one of the most recognisable sights in the City, Number Six is flanked by the glass-heavy modernism of the Schroders and Lloyds TSB offices. Gresham Street itself has a meandering, secluded charm, despite being just yards away from bustling Cheapside.

Walk inside, and to your left is the new Parlour, a bijou street-facing room perfect for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a board meeting for up to 12 people. It’s a delicate little room with taupe walls, dominated by a chandelier and the impressive portrait of William Henry Milman of Sion College. It can also be used as a press room when product launches or awards ceremonies are held upstairs.

On the other side of the atrium is the expanded Court Room, which will comfortably seat 34 for dinner or 22 for a boardroom-style meeting (it also has its own break-out space). The removal of the heavy, red carpet and curtains has ensured that the most is made of the room’s natural light, and its wood floors and pale walls are decorated only with the various charters awarded to the Wax Chandlers since the time of Richard III.

The hallway itself is dominated by a smoked glass lift. In the redesign, this was expanded from a four to eight-person capacity, and now allows disabled access to the whole building. ‘That’s what started it all off actually,’ says Mark Young, beadle of the Wax Chandlers company and the building’s unofficial curator. ‘We had to make the lift bigger in 2005, and we thought: “Let’s sort the whole place out.”’

Upstairs, the changes are less structural and more cosmetic. There are refitted ladies’ loos on the first floor, and if you go up another floor, you’ll reach the Banqueting Hall and adjoining Masters’ room. The smaller of the two is often used as a break-out space but can hold 14 for dinner in its own right. It has cream walls and is decorated with a cabinet full of treasured candles and a stained-glass window. The larger room is rectangular (apart from a tapered corner where those pesky town planners had their way) and will hold 100 standing, 80 theatre-style or 67 for dinner.

It used to have unfashionable big red curtains, a red carpet and striped walls. ‘The first thing we did was take up the carpet,’ says Young. ‘And underneath we found this beautiful floor.’ The classic minimalism of the parquet underfoot is now offset by delicate duck-egg blue fabric walls, and swagged curtains of the same colour, which make the most of the room’s natural light.

Dean Main of Lloyds TSB certainly won’t miss the old decor when he books events in the revamped rooms. ‘The first thing I noticed before was the carpet,’ he says. ‘It made the place look dark and dingy. Now, the whole experience of coming up the stairs has changed.’

There are some survivors from before the makeover: a dozen or so portraits of past masters, as well as the chandeliers. There’s also a minstrels’ gallery, where dinner guests can have a harpist or string quartet playing. Catering comes courtesy of Lena Björck’s Inn Or Out, a company that’s been involved with Number Six for the last half a decade but sees the relaunch as the chance to take the collaboration to the next level. ‘Before, we weren’t very active with the marketing here because the hall didn’t reflect what we were doing,’ says Björck. ‘Now we can really crack on.’

And crack on they have, with canapés at the launch party ranging from melt-in-the-mouth cubes of buttery foie gras with spring compote to more health-conscious beef summer rolls with rice noodles, purple basil and mango. The company also offers sushi and sashimi bars, as well as gastronomic menus with top-quality ingredients such as ceps, balsamic figs and glazed vine tomatoes.

According to Graham Skinner, a former Air Vice-Marshal and the clerk of the Worshipful Company of Engineers, who has just booked six dinner events at the venue, what lifts Inn Or Out above the herd is the company’s attention to detail. ‘When we host dinners, we invite other livery companies over and their clerks are very quick to notice if something isn’t done as it should be,’ he says. ‘Inn Or Out are excellent at turning rooms round quickly and keeping to a strict timetable.’

This flexibility and the high level of service means the venue is as suitable for a small-scale board meeting as celebration dinner – and with a great location, good food and refined looks, it’s clear that Six could be your lucky number.

Click through for Number Six Gresham Street's venue review.

Venue Focus from Square Meal Venues & Events Magazine, Autumn 2007 - 'Six Appeal’ Capacities:

Function Room	Meeting or Conference	Sit-down Dinner	Stand-up Reception
Banqueting Hall	80	67	100
Court Room	22	34	60
Master’s Room	10	10	15
Parlour	8	8	0

Venue Focus from Square Meal Venues & Events Magazine, Autumn 2007 - 'Six Appeal’ Location:

For more information, visit venue’s website.