The Mall Tavern

Palace Gardens Terrace is one of those quiet Kensington streets that doesn't announce itself — residential, tree-lined, the kind of road you walk down to get somewhere else. The Mall Tavern sits here as a grand Victorian pub with 23 craft beer taps, seasonal British cooking, and a small hidden garden that regulars guard possessively. Above the bar, a meeting room with large windows overlooks the street. Below it, a converted beer cellar that's become one of the area's more interesting private event spaces.

A Pub with Layers

The ground floor is a proper pub — craft beer, seasonal food, Sunday roasts, the kind of place with a loyal neighbourhood following in a part of London where pubs are increasingly rare. But The Mall Tavern's value for event planners sits above and below the main bar. The cellar, converted into a self-contained event space with private beer taps and its own anteroom, handles dinners, parties, and receptions for up to 50. The meeting room upstairs, bright and overlooking the terrace, takes small groups for daytime working sessions.

It's an unusual combination: a venue that can host a board meeting at 9am, a pub lunch at noon, and a private dinner in the cellar that evening — all under the same Victorian roof.

The Mall Tavern near Notting Hill Gate

Notting Hill Gate tube is moments away, which gives the venue the transport access that some of Kensington's more tucked-away pubs lack. The licence runs to midnight. In-house catering covers everything from morning pastries in the meeting room to four-course feasting dinners in the cellar — with 23 craft taps feeding the cellar's own private bar, the beer selection alone is worth the booking for the right crowd.