The Merchant Adventurers' Hall takes corporate dinners, networking evenings, awards ceremonies, client receptions, parties and weddings, with black-tie dinners of up to 180 guests in its Great Hall. The Hall stands on Fossgate in the center of York, in the north of England. Work on it began in 1357, and it is still owned and looked after by the guild that built it, now called the Company of Merchant Adventurers of the City of York.
Seminars and company events
The corporate offer is built around evening events rather than day conferences. The Great Hall is the setting for formal dinners and awards nights, while the Undercroft below suits a canapé reception before or after. Smaller rooms in the building are offered for more private gatherings. A PA system can be booked for speeches and background music at an extra charge, and in winter an open fire is lit. The Hall publishes a hire pack for corporate clients with fuller details of each room.
Weddings and receptions
For weddings and civil partnerships, the Hall is hired exclusively. The Great Hall is used for the ceremony and the wedding breakfast, the Undercroft for the evening reception and bar, and a secluded walled garden lies just outside. The Hall is a charity and states that it charges no VAT on hire.
Rooms and capacities
The Great Hall is the main space and takes dinners of up to 180 guests. The Undercroft, on the ground floor, hosts receptions and the evening bar; its capacity is not published. Smaller rooms suit intimate events. Ask the Hall for the hire pack for layouts and figures by room.
Catering
There is no in-house kitchen team. The Hall works with a panel of five caterers, offering menus from formal dining to more relaxed contemporary food, and the caterer you choose also runs the bar.
History and setting
The site was granted by deed in 1356 to a religious fraternity of York merchants, and the hall, first called Trinity Hall, was built between 1357 and 1361. The Undercroft was licensed as a hospital in 1373, around the time the present chapel was built. The fraternity became the Mistery of Mercers under a charter from Henry VI in 1430 and took its present name under a second charter from Elizabeth I in 1581. A restoration in 1913 secured the timber structure and raised the Undercroft floor by about 1.5 meters. Today the building is Grade I listed and open as an accredited museum, with two collections of silver, one of them made and hallmarked in York, along with historic paintings and furniture. Guests at an event dine among these collections.
Getting there
Fossgate is a short street in the medieval center, within walking distance of the main shopping streets. York railway station, on the East Coast Main Line with direct trains to London, Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester, is about 20 minutes away on foot. Leeds Bradford is the nearest airport. Parking in the center is limited, so guests are best advised to arrive by train or taxi.
