Portland Place

Quite the conundrum, this place. You get slightly bewitched by the colourful history — one of its many former guises is as the embassy of Sierra Leone — and it’s truly a grand house, right in the centre of London.
It’s available for private hire and I’ve been to ‘carnival nights’ there, but it’s somewhat hobbled by Westminster’s restrictive licensing policies. I’ve also seen venue staff arguing with promoters — who’s at fault, well who’s to know. Either way, it probably should be hidden from the punters. Long queues often form to get in for events, as everyone’s name has to be checked individually, and at peak times it can become difficult to move around as the toilets are in the basement down a narrow servants’ staircase.
On the other hand, not that many venues attract such an eclectic crowd, and the memory of the Leonard Cohen lookalike wearing the full-​sized black angels wings is going to remain with me for quite a while. It’s frequently used as a shoot location as well as having some bedrooms upstairs. I presume that if you’re a resident you get to use the outside hot tub.
A rather fascinating, decadent interior which has undoubtedly seen all kinds of goings-​on. Check out their website for more details.