Small reception room

Chartered Accountants' Hall was designed in the 1880s by architect John Belcher, who used a Baroque Revival style inspired by Baroque architecture he had observed while travelling in Europe.

The small reception room (originally the committee room) presents a mystery. The original plans for Chartered Accountants' Hall show that Belcher's plans for the room would have delivered an ornate and rich design in keeping with the style adopted in the rest of the building. The original design would have seen the lower half of the walls lined with oak panelling; a deeply coffered ceiling above; striking doric pilasters on either side of the bay; and most notably, a magnificent stone fireplace with supporting atalantes. Instead, a much more restrained but elegant design was adopted here.

The room has been a popular choice for high profile meetings over the years, the most famous of these being when Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell, Margaret Beckett and Peter Mandelson convened a meeting in 1997 to determine the path of New Labour.

The room's fireplace includes an impressive bronze fire surround by British sculptor Arthur Stevens, a leading figure in the Classical and Renaissance revival. The design features a reclining classical style central figure, surrounded by decorative ribbons and birds.

The ICAEW Library & Information Service holds a collection of books and articles on Chartered Accountants' Hall, covering the original building and the later extensions. See our Further reading page for details of these, as well as links to web pages on the sculptors and artists whose work decorates the building.