King's College Cambridge

For more than half a millennium, King’s has been a fount of academic excellence and bookers should expect it to hit similarly exalted heights. Sloping gently down to the river Cam, there’s nowhere more green and pleasant than the Back Lawn. Whether it’s dinner for 800 in a marquee or open-air drinks for 1000, the late-Gothic College Chapel – perhaps the biggest feather in Henry VIII’s oversized cap – provides the backdrop. For business-first events, think about the Keynes Lecture Theatre and the Chetwynd Room. With a 13m-high ceiling, the neo-Gothic Hall is a stately spot for lunch or dinner that can accommodate over 300. ‘A passion for excellence’ is the motto in these parts and it’s easy to see how King’s might inspire the same in your delegates.