The National Gallery

Dry venue hire starts from £18,000 + VAT for evening events, which includes the venue, an event manager, security, first aid, and cleaning/porter teams. For seated dinners, the fee is £20,000 + VAT for a four-hour hire with guest access from 18:45/19:00 – 23:00, while standing receptions are £18,000 + VAT for three-hour hire with guest access from 18:45/19:00 – 22:00. Some smaller spaces like the Yves Saint Laurent room start from £10,000 + VAT for up to 60 people.

Catering, production, florist, and entertainment are all in addition to the facility fee and must be provided through the Gallery's approved suppliers from their Accredited Supplier List. You can extend your event beyond the standard end times (22:00 or 23:00) up to 02:00 at £2,000 + VAT per hour. All suppliers must be selected from the Gallery's accredited list - you cannot bring in external vendors.

Events cannot be hosted on Fridays as the gallery is open to the public until 21:00, making evening events impossible. The venue is also unavailable on New Year's Eve due to Trafalgar Square celebrations and road closures that prevent supplier access. Evening events typically start with guest access from 18:45/19:00, and the gallery closes to the public at 18:00 on all other days except Fridays.

Daytime spaces are currently unavailable due to major capital refurbishment and will not reopen until September 2025, with new bookings being taken for Autumn 2025. The Gallery is currently only accepting evening event hire from 18:45. New stunning meeting spaces will be available once the refurbishment is complete.

The National Gallery cannot host ticketed events as per their Gallery Policy. This restriction applies to all events where guests would purchase tickets for entry, regardless of the event type or purpose.

The venue experiences high demand with many dates fully booked months in advance - for example, November dates are typically unavailable with only December availability mentioned in correspondence. The booking process involves arranging a site visit of the spaces first, after which they can place your event date on hold. Contact their Venue Hire Direct Line at +44 (0)207 747 5931 to begin the process.

The venue can accommodate up to 350 guests for seated dinners and up to 1,200 for standing receptions across their various spaces. Specific rooms have different capacities - for example, the Yves Saint Laurent room accommodates up to 60 people for £10,000 + VAT, while their main evening hire can handle 300 people for the £18,000 + VAT base fee.

Exhibition access at the National Gallery is an exclusive benefit of Corporate Support and is not included in standard venue hire. To host events that include private views of exhibitions, you must contact their Corporate Team separately - this is not available through regular venue hire bookings.

The venue hire fee includes a dedicated event manager, security team, first aid coverage, cleaning/porter teams, and Wi-Fi access. These services are all included in the base hire fee and do not require additional payment. The event manager will coordinate your event throughout the planning process and on the day.

The venue operates with minimum hire fees rather than minimum spends - evening hire starts from £18,000 + VAT with no flexibility for lower budgets. When clients inquire about budgets significantly below this threshold (such as £1,600 or £5,000), the venue immediately declines as they are "out of budget" and suggests clients look elsewhere.