Mary Sumner House offers nine flexible spaces in the heart of Westminster, from six-person meeting rooms to a conference room for 120. Grade II listed, centrally located, fully equipped, and staffed by a team that understands how to get the most out of the space.
The wrong space makes everything harder before the day has even started. A boardroom layout for a workshop, a theatre arrangement for a strategy meeting, a room that seats 60 when you need 25. These issues create friction, and delegates feel it.
Mary Sumner House offer nine spaces across a wide range of capacities. The Conference Hall accommodates up to 120 in a theatre arrangement, 60 in a cabaret, or 48 in a boardroom, and can be combined with our adjacent rooms for breakout sessions. Our eight named meeting rooms range from intimate six-person spaces to rooms seating 24 in a boardroom layout.
If your day involves a mix of work and meetings, rooms can be used in combination. If you’re unsure which configuration is the right fit, share your numbers, format, and itinerary, and we can advise before you commit.
A space that is too large for the group is rarely a minor inconvenience. It changes the dynamic. People spread out, voices don’t carry, and the room itself signals nobody was quite sure how many people were attending. The right-sized space does the opposite. It focuses the group and keeps the conversation tight. Making the whole day feel considered.
Mary Sumner House is well-suited to this exact kind of meeting. Our small rooms are properly equipped and genuinely private. Critically, they’re not scaled-down versions of something bigger.
For more complex days that require a main space and a breakout, or separate rooms running parallel, the building can be arranged to your brief.
It’s rarely the equipment that causes problems on the day. Arriving to find that no one knows how to connect to the screen, the microphone needs a cable that isn’t there, or the person who set it up has already left the building.
Every meeting room on the first and second floors is fitted with a wall-mounted display screen. A team member will be with you at the start of your session to ensure everything is connected and working before your delegates arrive. If anything goes wrong, we are on hand to fix it.
The Conference Hall is fitted with a projector and screen, and a PA system, suitable for presentations, panel discussions, and keynote speakers. Additional AV packages are available for larger events. A full breakdown of equipment and pricing is in our Venue Hire & Equipment Charges brochure.
Catering is a critical part of event planning. A working lunch that needs three separate sign-offs, a coffee that arrives cold, a supplier who’s never worked in the venue before – none of these should fall on the responsibility of the organiser.
Tea, coffee, biscuits and water can be provided for all first and second-floor meeting room bookings. Complimentary water is provided in any first and second-floor meeting room where no refreshments have been ordered. It’s in place when you arrive; nothing to arrange separately.
For catering in the first and second-floor meeting rooms and for refreshments and catering in the Conference Hall, you would need to arrange this externally. We welcome external suppliers, but recommend Spoilt for Choice and Sands Catering instead. Either way, we’ll ensure the logistics are coordinated in advance.
A venue that is difficult to reach adds friction before the event has even started, and delegates who’ve had a difficult journey arrive in the wrong frame of mind.
Mary Sumner House is at 24 Tufton Street, Westminster SW1P 3RB. Victoria, Westminster, and St James’s Park Underground stations are all within a short walk and served by the Victoria, District, Circle, and Jubilee lines. Mainline railway stations, Victoria, Waterloo, and Charing Cross, connect delegates travelling from outside the capital. And for those outside the UK, Gatwick Airport has a direct line to Victoria; Heathrow connects via the Underground.
Accessibility is one of those things that gets checked at the end of the planning process, when it should’ve been considered from the start. If a delegate cannot access a room, the room doesn’t matter.
Mary Sumner House is fully accessible from the street, with ramps at the entrance and lift access to all meeting rooms. There are no meeting rooms that require stairs to reach, with one exception, the Conference Hall on the lower ground floor. However, this is served by a stairlift in addition to the main lift.
For delegates with mobility requirements, the lift is 1.20m wide by 85cm deep with a 75cm doorway. Accessible toilet facilities are available on the second floor, and a unisex accessible toilet is located on the fourth floor. If you have delegates with specific requirements, give us a call to discuss the building in detail before booking.
Vague pricing means more emails, more back-and-forth, and a budget conversation you can’t have until someone finally sends you a figure.
Room hire at Mary Sumner House starts from £220 (VAT exempt) per session for smaller rooms. The Conference Hall is available from £1,317 (VAT exempt) per day. Display screens and connectivity support are included in all first and second-floor rooms. Refreshments can be arranged at £6 per person (VAT inc.). No VAT is charged on room hire.
Registered charities receive a discounted rate. Given that Mary Sumner House exists to support the work of Mothers’ Union, it’s a natural decision. For third sector organisations, where every pound of budget matters, it’s worth asking about when you get in touch.
Our team is small, which means the person you speak to when you enquire is the same person who knows your requirements on the day. There’s no handover, no briefing someone twice, no arriving to find the setup isn’t what you discussed. If you’ve told us what you need, it will be ready.
We handle setup, AV, and refreshments, and we’re available throughout the day. You run the meeting. We manage everything around it.
We encourage every organiser to visit before they book. It’s the most reliable way to get a clear understanding of the space and whether it’s right. Additionally, it allows us to discuss your requirements in detail.
An anonymous meeting room in a serviced office block is easy to book and easy to forget. A venue with no character doesn’t add anything to the day — it just gets out of the way.
Mary Sumner House was designed by architect Claude W. Ferrier and built in 1925 to honour Mary Sumner, the founder of Mothers’ Union. The building has been in continuous use since, and the detail is everywhere if you look for it.
From the original wood panelling and century-old chairs to the stained-glass windows of the Mary Sumner Room, bearing Irish provincial arms, placed in memory of the 49,435 Irish soldiers who died in the First World War.
The rooms are named after women who shaped history — Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Malala Yousafzai, Wangari Maathai, Sarojini Naidu, Mary Slessor. It’s the kind of detail that delegates notice, occasionally ask about, and tend to carry with them.
The best way to know whether Mary Sumner House is right for your event is to see it in person. We’ll show you the rooms, talk through your requirements, and make sure everything is clear before you decide — without any pressure to confirm on the day.
To arrange a visit, request a quote, or simply ask a question, call us on 0207 222 5533, email conference@mothersunion.org, or fill in the enquiry form below.
