Drinks! Canapés! Gossip! Our insider guide to London’s exclusive summer parties

London in the sun. There’s nothing quite like it: the parks, the lidos, the beer gardens, the smell of hot pavement and the ordeal of the pressure-cooker Tube. But for the City’s rich and famous denizens, there is one London summer phenomenon that cannot be beaten: the summer party.

With more green space and self-regarding institutions per capita than any other city on Earth, we are the world capital of the glamorous summer bash, where the great and good gather for drinks, canapés and gossip. With the summer party season kicking off this month, let us be your guide.

Political parties

At the apex of the political parties sits The summer party, where careers can be made or broken. The Right-leaning magazine,, notably not crossing paths in the garden of the magazine’s office which overlooks St James’s Park.