Belair House

This is a mixed review. Summary: Generally, the location and the place are very good, but interacting with the people (new management) who run this place was painful at times and felt unprofessional. The positives: + We really liked the location of the place: in the middle of a public park but very close to a train station. It's very easy to get to from London Victoria or Brixton. Really great location. + The venue itself is quite nice because it has many rooms of different characteristics. + Just before our event, the venue had undergone a major refurbishment, and most of this really looked great. There were still a few minor things that could have been better (e.g., small cracks in the ceiling not covered), but overall very good. + The venue was clean. + The service on the day was very good, and people were helpful. + The food in the end was very good, especially the lamb chops. The negatives: - Communication with the venue was sometimes very slow (days/weeks before getting a response) - The cost of food is not transparent, and the venue did not make any attempts to make it transparent. - The quality of the drinks they have at the venue is not high (especially beer). Getting drinks from outside is a nightmare although the venue offered to do so: a) The corkage fee is outrageous, b) They can't even get wine that you can directly order from Majestic (and they initially claimed it would be no problem). - We brought some beer from outside because their beer selection is just awful. We had a bar outside, and the venue promised to move the kegs to the inside when the outside bar closes. On the day this did not happen, and some great beer was wasted. Poor. - Although the food was very good in the end, we basically needed to tell the kitchen how to cook/marinate things (this holds for stuff they have not made before). - Very poor planning in terms of how much food is needed. We had 110 guests, and we were left with 50 loaves of bread and 20kg of cheese (ignoring everything else that was left). A venue with a history of running big events should be able to do much better estimates. Would I go again for this venue? Probably not. Although the venue is great and the food was good, dealing with the management and getting things right was painful. The pricing is not transparent, the food estimates are poor, and they exploit their position to squeeze the most out of your pocket. Although we had a great event, after a few weeks I still feel unhappy about how things went overall.

A beautiful events venue for milestone events in a lovely quote park. Relaxed atmosphere with friendly people.

Beuatiful and intimate. Greta service and helpful staff

Great location and building but ruined by poor management. Could be great under the right ownership.

Always a pleasant place to visit away from the city life.