RIBA Venues, the events arm of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), has reported a 21 per cent increase in external events at the venue in 2015, leading to a 22 per cent increase in turnover.

Head of venues Stephanie Ellrott (pictured) said: “After a strong start to the year we did not expect this level of growth to continue throughout the year. We are very proud to have outperformed our already strong market share last year by over 20 per cent in a time when our competition grows and the market more or less stagnates.”

The venue hosted 795 external events between January and December 2015 compared with 634 events over the same period in 2014.

The team noted a particular rise in large events at the venue including fashion shows (106 per cent) and drinks receptions (105 per cent) in 2015.

The rise in events has produced a 17 per cent increase in profit, which is put back into the RIBA charity.

There has also been a 69 per cent increase in corporate dinners, 45 per cent increase in awards dinners, a 20 per cent increase in conferences and a 30 per cent increase in weddings.

“We have worked rigorously to improve our service levels, built a strong sales team, concentrated on strong proactive sales activities and ventured into niche markets with a great return and we look forward to seeing more of the same in 2016,” Ellrott added.