Corporate Christmas Party Venues in Durham

Durham is a small city with an unusually good supply of party venues, and the reason is geography. The centre is a medieval peninsula where almost nothing has a room big enough for fifty people sitting down, while two minutes up the A1(M) there are country hotels and a county cricket ground built for exactly that. So the first decision is not really which venue, it is whether you want your team walking home from the Market Place or getting a minibus.

Below is what is bookable, with the things the person organising it actually needs to know. Shared party nights at the bigger venues go on sale in late summer and the December Fridays sell first, so this is a September or October job.

Ramside Hall, for scale

Ramside Hall Hotel, Golf & Spa at Carrville is the region's default answer for a big Christmas do, and it earns it: 127 bedrooms, 350 acres, two championship golf courses and function suites that run from a boardroom table up to several hundred covers, with coach parking. Its festive programme is a long one, starting in late November and running through to New Year, with themed shared party nights (decades discos, live party bands) built around a two or three course dinner and a dance floor until midnight.

The practical appeal is that you can put ten people on a shared night without committing to a room, then scale up to exclusive use of a suite when the headcount justifies it. The golf clubhouse runs its own disco nights too, a less formal room than the main hotel.

Best for: teams of any size who want the night to include a proper band, and the option of staying over rather than arranging taxis back into the city.

Radisson Blu, if you want exclusive use

Radisson Blu Hotel Durham on Frankland Lane is the strongest choice in the city itself if you would rather have a room to yourselves. It holds eleven event spaces, the largest being the Auger Suite at 270 square metres, which takes up to 400 for a standing reception or around 220 seated on rounds and divides into two. Below that, the Seam Room does 60 seated and the Cavil Rooms around 40.

For private bookings the kitchen builds a three or four course menu or a buffet rather than selling a fixed package, and there are 120 on-site parking spaces with direct access from the A1(M), which matters in a city where parking is the usual sticking point. Shared party nights run through December, most finishing at 11.55pm, several with a drink on arrival included.

Best for: a company party of 60 to 220 that wants its own room, its own menu and somewhere colleagues can park for free.

Durham Cricket at the Riverside

Durham Cricket at Banks Homes Riverside in Chester-le-Street is ten minutes up the road and is set up for corporate bookings in a way few venues are. Alongside shared nights across December, it takes private room hire for groups of 25 to 200 from November through January, priced per head for a two or three course sit-down or a festive buffet, with a DJ, an arrival drink and the room dressed included.

That 25-person floor is the useful number. Plenty of venues only do exclusive hire above 80 or 100, so a mid-sized team wanting privacy without a ballroom has a real option.

Best for: departments of 25 to 200 who want exclusive hire with the pricing done per head rather than as a room fee plus catering.

Durham Castle, the option nowhere else has

This is Durham's genuinely distinctive answer. Durham Castle is University College, and the university's Event Durham team hires its rooms out commercially. The Great Hall dates from 1284 and seats up to 200 for dinner, with a drinks reception in the courtyard beforehand. The smaller Bishop's Dining Room takes up to 40.

The catch is the calendar: the Great Hall is available during University vacations, so whether your December date falls inside term is the first question to ask, and worth asking early. The Bishop's Dining Room is available year round, which makes dinner for a senior team inside a Norman castle a more realistic booking than most people assume.

Best for: the client dinner or milestone celebration where the room is the point. Check vacation dates before you promise anyone anything.

Country house and inn options

South Causey Inn near Stanley runs shared party nights in December across its Durham Suite and Old Barn, around £37 a head for a two course dinner with a resident DJ, with pre-order drinks packages and a stay-over option if you want to avoid the drive. Bowburn Hall Hotel, two minutes from the A1(M) and two and a half miles from the city, has a ballroom and conservatory restaurant in five acres of gardens, free parking for around 120 cars, and does both shared festive nights and private functions.

Smaller teams, in the centre

For ten to thirty people, a private room in a restaurant beats a function suite. The Cellar Door on Saddler Street has two indoor private spaces taking up to 15 and up to 70, a functions manager and a monthly changing menu built individually rather than sold as a package. Whitechurch on Church Street Head does up to 40 seated or 60 for a buffet, with exclusive hire from 4pm. Delta Hotels by Marriott Durham Royal County on Old Elvet has five event rooms, the Cromwell taking 100 on banquet and the Bowes 40, which suits a sit-down dinner in the middle of the city. For the simplest version, The Kingslodge Inn on Waddington Street takes large bookings by phone, has free parking and runs seasonal dining through December, a short walk from the station.

What to nail down before you pay a deposit

Five things settle most Durham bookings. Is it a shared night or exclusive use, because a shared room means tables of strangers next to yours. Is the food a sit-down or a buffet, which changes how long people stay seated. What time does it finish, since most packages stop just before midnight and Durham taxis on a December Friday are competitive. Where do people park, or is the venue walkable. And is there a drinks package worth pre-ordering, because on the night it is usually cheaper than a tab.

Organising one this year and found somewhere we have missed? Get in touch and we will add it.