Cultural and faith delegations. Cars in order of precedence, and every guest greeted correctly.
We move visiting delegations, cultural missions, faith leaders and their parties, with our own cars in London and Manchester and a trusted global network beyond: the arrival, the cars in the right order, chauffeurs briefed on names and forms of address, and a vehicle prepared the way your party travels.
- 20+years in private travel
- Ownedchauffeur fleet in London and Manchester, a trusted global network beyond
- 24/7operations desk, one contact
- 3services on one itinerary: car, jet and yacht
In partnership with Harrods Aviation · Signature Aviation · SW Global
What usually goes wrong
The problems a visits office recognises
- A party that grows from six to eleven between the itinerary and the aircraft landing, with an interpreter nobody mentioned
- A programme built around prayer times, a fast or a service, where departure is fixed by something other than the meeting
- Chauffeurs who do not know how a senior guest is greeted or addressed, or whether a hand is offered at all
- Bottled water in the door pocket and nothing else in the car that anyone will drink
- Set down points nowhere near the entrance the host asked the party to use, on streets where nothing may wait
- Three cars from three suppliers, so the party divides at the kerb and arrives in pieces
How we work with hosts and visiting parties
Precedence is the plan
Before anything else we ask who is in the party and in what order. Precedence decides which vehicle each person travels in, which car arrives first, which seat the senior guest takes and which door is opened for whom. That order comes from you or from the host's protocol or visits office, and we follow it rather than working it out at the kerb.
Several vehicles run as one movement, behind a lead car, in a fixed order, with one coordinator holding every driver so that a change reaches all of them at the same moment. Cars stay with the party through an engagement rather than being released between them, because a service, a lecture or a reception rarely ends at the hour printed on the programme.
We will liaise with the host organisation once you tell us to. Cathedral vergers, mosque and mandir visitor offices, museum group entrances and institute event teams each have their own rules about where a car may stop and for how long, and they are far more helpful a week ahead than on the morning. Our own cars and chauffeurs are in London and Manchester, with a trusted global network everywhere else, and we arrange aircraft where a programme cannot be met by road.
In the car
The things a party notices first
- RefreshmentTo your instructionTell us what to stock and what to leave out.
- AlcoholNot carried unless asked forNothing in any car in the movement by default.
- QuietThe setting we start fromRadio off. The chauffeur speaks when spoken to.
- PrivacyRear blindsSet before the party gets in, and in every car rather than the first one.
- PrayerA fixed pointA stop at the hour you give us, the car held, the chauffeur waiting outside it.
- GreetingBriefed in advanceNames, titles, forms of address, and which door is opened by whom.
- Robes and vestmentsHung, not foldedHanging space in the V-Class for anything that must not crease.
- Anything not listed hereAsk usWe will tell you plainly what we can do and what we cannot.
The preference that causes trouble is the one mentioned in the car rather than on the itinerary.
London venues
Where the car actually stops
| Venue | The set down | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| The British Museum | Montague Place, WC1E 7JW | Parties of ten or more use Montague Place, not the Great Russell Street steps, and book with the museum first. |
| V&A South Kensington | Cromwell Road, at the Grand Entrance | Exhibition Road is the other way in. Parking here is impossible: plan a set down and a recall. |
| The Royal Albert Hall | Kensington Gore, by Albert Hall Mansions | Doors are numbered and the building looks the same all the way round. Agree the number with the host. |
| Westminster Cathedral | Ambrosden Avenue, off Victoria Street | The piazza in front is pedestrian. Victoria Street at the end of the day is the variable. |
| Lambeth Palace | Lambeth Palace Road, SE1 7JU | Entry is through the gatehouse at Morton's Tower, by prior arrangement. Visits are booked ahead. |
| The London Central Mosque | 146 Park Road, NW8 7RG | The Islamic Cultural Centre shares the site. Park Road is quick and the turning is easy to miss. |
| BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir | The Meadow Garth gate, Neasden | Visitors enter by Meadow Garth and there is a car park, unusual in London. Larger vehicles have little room. |
| Cultural institutes | Belgrave Square, Queensberry Place and nearby | Garden squares and residential streets, where waiting is restricted and resident bays are enforced. |
Set downs change with building works and with the event, so we check each one for the day. The congestion charge zone and the Ultra Low Emission Zone cover every address above.
Manchester
The same visit, a different map
In Manchester, as in London, the cars and the chauffeurs are our own. A visiting party here divides between the centre and the university corridor: the cathedral on Victoria Street, Manchester Central on Windmill Street, then the Whitworth and Manchester Museum on Oxford Road, the Jewish Museum on Cheetham Hill Road and the Manchester Islamic Centre on Burton Road in West Didsbury.
Oxford Road is what catches visiting drivers out. General traffic is barred between Portland Street and Hathersage Road from six in the morning until nine at night, every day of the week, so no car reaches the Whitworth or the museum straight down it from the centre. The way in is off the Mancunian Way by Denmark Road, or up Upper Brook Street and across. Minutes rather than hours, but only if the chauffeur knows before setting off.
What we are asked for
Around a visit or a mission
Airport arrivals
The flight tracked and the cars in place before the party reaches arrivals.
Multi-car movements
Several vehicles together in an order you set, held for the day.
A car at disposal
For a head of delegation or a senior guest, held for the visit.
Multi-day programmes
A week of engagements across several cities, run as one thing.
Receptions and services
Evenings where the departure window is narrow and the street outside is narrower.
Onward travel and aircraft
The regions, and aircraft arranged where the road cannot meet the programme.
What the host gets
The things a visits or protocol office asks for
- One coordinator for the whole visit, so host and visiting sides are not relaying messages through each other
- A written movement schedule matching the programme car by car, before the party arrives
- A briefing sheet for each chauffeur: names, titles, forms of address, seating and doors
- Complete discretion, with nothing about a visit repeated afterwards to anyone
The commercial side
Billed the way an institution accounts for it
- AccountIn the institution's nameFor a cultural section, a diocese, a trust or a university, or opened for one visit.
- ReferencesPer visit or per programmeOn every journey, so a funder or a committee can see what was spent on what.
- BookersNamed by youA visits office, a private secretary, a chaplaincy, an events team.
- ReportingBy movementA statement that reads against your programme.
For the visits office
Tell us about the visit
The dates, how many are travelling, who is in the party and in what order, the venues on the programme, and anything about how the party travels that we should plan for rather than discover. If the visit has not been announced, tell us only what you are able to.
Prefer to talk? +44 2030 048300 or WhatsApp, at any hour.
Questions people ask
From institutions and visiting parties
Can the cars be prepared to our requirements?
Yes. Tell us what should be in the car and what should not, and the vehicles are ready that way before the party lands rather than adjusted at the kerb.
Can prayer or service times be built into the programme?
Yes. Give us the times and they become fixed points in the schedule, with the car held and the chauffeur waiting outside it.
Will the chauffeurs know how to address our guests?
They will, because we ask you first. Names, titles and forms of address go on the briefing sheet with the seating and the order of the cars.
Can you deal with the venues directly?
Yes, once you tell us to. We would far rather agree a set down point with a venue's visitor office a week ahead than argue about it on the day.
Do you take instructions from us or from the host?
From whoever you tell us to, and only from them. If both sides need to speak to us, we will say who is coordinating so nobody is given two answers.
Can you cover a visit outside London?
Yes. Our own cars and chauffeurs are in London and Manchester, with a trusted global network everywhere else, and we arrange aircraft where they are needed. See private jet charter.
One contact, wherever you are