Facilities

Performance spacesTeaching & practice facilities
Three RCM students playing together in the RCM's Performance Hall

‘In developing its already iconic and exceptional facilities, the Royal College of Music has committed to ensuring a world-leading experience for future students and visitors.’

Lang Lang

'The facilities at the RCM are second-to-none, especially with the new development. There are so many practice, rehearsal and performance spaces.'

Louisa Kataria, Bachelor of Music

We continually invest in our facilities to ensure RCM students have the very best opportunities. Our impressive performance spaces are matched by top-quality academic and technical provisions, such as our historic Library and professional grade Studios. The Royal College of Music is proud to offer some of the finest facilities anywhere in the world.

The RCM has recently invested £40 million to develop more state-of-the-art facilities within our campus, expanding and improving what students can enjoy. Our exciting new facilities opened in 2020 and include two new performance venues, new social spaces and new facilities for food and drink. The Royal College of Music Museum opened in October 2021 and we opened the Digital Innovation Lab in October 2022.

The RCM Baroque Ensemble and Choir in the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall

Performance spaces

Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall

With two Steinway grand pianos, a new custom-built organ by Flentrop Orgelbouw and a seating capacity of 400, the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall is the primary rehearsal and concert venue for RCM orchestras and large ensembles.

The Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall has played host to many great names, including Richard Strauss, Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, Nicola Benedetti, Vladimir Ashkenazy and the late Bernard Haitink.

Performance Hall

Our new 138 seat Performance Hall is a space for ensemble performances and orchestral rehearsals. It boasts a retractable stage, a Fazioli grand piano, comprehensive technical infrastructure and variable acoustics, providing versatility for the range of events staged by the College.

Looking out on stage at a conductor and small ensemble in rehearsal, in the RCM's Performance Hall

A rehearsal taking place in the RCM's Performance Hall

Britten Theatre

The Britten Theatre is one of London's best-loved opera stages. Its responsive acoustics and intimate auditorium are appreciated by performers and audiences alike.

With excellent technical facilities, the theatre is in regular use as the focus of the thriving RCM Opera Studio, but also hosts a variety of instrumental performances, including a chamber music series and concerts by the RCM Jazz Orchestra. It benefits from an orchestra pit for 80 musicians, a Steinway grand piano, four dressing rooms, a seating capacity of 400, as well as its own bar and foyer.

Walking onto the Britten Theatre stage

A scene from the RCM's production of Hänsel und Gretel in the Britten Theatre

The RCM Jazz Orchestra preparing for a performance in the Britten Theatre

Backstage at the Britten Theatre during an opera production

A wind quintet rehearses on the Britten Theatre stage

Recital Hall

Our 100-seat Recital Hall provides an alternative performance space to the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall. Used for smaller events and less formal occasions, it features two Steinway grand pianos, a harpsichord, projector and dropdown screen.

Performance Studio

The new Performance Studio is an intimate venue for solo and chamber performance which seats 40 people.

Parry Rooms

The Parry Rooms, which have unparalleled views of the Royal Albert Hall, are named after former Director of the RCM, Sir Hubert Parry.

The suite of three intimate spaces, nestled in the breathtaking eaves of the Blomfield Building, boast excellent acoustics, a grand piano, a harpsichord and an organ. The Parry rooms are frequently used for chamber music and solo recitals, lectures and masterclasses.

The Parry Rooms

Flute professor Simon Channing rehearsing with students in the Parry Rooms

An organ lesson in the West Parry Room

A chamber music masterclass with Thomas Zehetmair in the Parry Rooms

Prince Consort Village

The Royal College of Music’s hall of residence, Prince Consort Village, provides high-quality accommodation for more than 400 students in all years of study. With a variety of acoustically treated bedrooms, dedicated 24/7 practice rooms, an on-site gym plus a range of other social and practical facilities, Prince Consort Village is a popular accommodation choice with RCM students.

Find out more about Prince Consort Village

Teaching & practice facilities

Our extensive teaching and practice facilities are designed to offer all students an atmosphere conducive to developing their talents.

As well as practice rooms and space for one-to-one and group teaching, the RCM contains dedicated opera rehearsal spaces, a number of sound-proofed Amadeus Music Pods for private practice, access to our magnificent Flentrop Orgelbouw organ in the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, and a purpose-built percussion suite.

We have over 160 pianos, including 60 grand pianos and 20 early keyboards, and a Blüthner Practice Suite which holds ten Blüthner Model A upright pianos. We also have instrument surgeries including luthier services and resident piano technicians, instrument storage, and dual-purpose practice and teaching spaces with audio visual equipment.

Library and resources

A student browsing materials in the library

Searching through our extensive collection of CD recordings

Using the library's AV facilities for study

Doctoral students in the spectacular Donaldson Room

The RCM Library supports all areas of teaching, research and performance at the RCM.  The library contains more than 200,000 scores, books and recordings in its lending collection. Via the library students have access to a wide range of online resources such as Oxford Music Online (including Grove), Cambridge Core ebooks, JSTOR and e-journals.  For e-scores we have subscriptions to both nkoda and the Henle library apps, and audio-visual resources include Naxos Music Library, Met Opera on Demand and the Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall.

The RCM Library also holds an internationally renowned collection of autograph manuscripts (including examples by Mozart, Chopin, Elgar and Vaughan Williams), early printed editions and archives.

In addition to the collections, the library has spaces for quiet and group study and is managed by a friendly and knowledgeable team of librarians who are here to enable students and staff to make the most of the library.

Through these resources the library provides vital support for teaching, research and performance at the RCM. The friendly and knowledgeable team of librarians also mounts regular exhibitions and runs seminars on how to make the most of the library. 

Museum and collections

Guitars on display in glass cabinets in the RCM Museum

Guitars on display in the RCM Museum

The RCM Museum holds more than 14,000 instruments, portraits, images and engravings dating from the mid-15th century to the present day, some of which are the earliest known examples of their kind. These items offer fascinating insight into the past, present and future of music and provide a coherent and comprehensive resource for the documentation, research and representation of the history of musical performance and instrument-making in London, particularly between the 18th and 20th centuries. Collection items regularly feature in academic and popular publications, television and radio programmes and as loans to major international exhibitions in Europe and beyond.

As part of a £3.6 million National Lottery Heritage Funded project, the Museum collection has been greatly enhanced and revitalised in a suite of purpose-built spaces that include accessible permanent display and temporary exhibition galleries, a ‘hands-on’ discovery area, a climate-controlled performance space and a dedicated research facility.

The Wolfson Centre in Music & Material Culture (WCMM) provides easy access to parts of the RCM’s collections for the purpose of research by RCM Professors, students and external researchers, as well as delivering object-based learning to small classes and groups. Features of the centre include a conservation workshop, climate-controlled on-site storage for our collections and a dedicated area for consultation, documentation and digitisation.

Technology services

Our ICT Service provides a broad range of essential technology services to aid and enhance life at the RCM, with the team available via a drop-in and online helpdesk.

Technical facilities at the RCM include Wi-Fi, access to computers in our buildings, a computerised self-service system for booking practice rooms and large format colour printers. At the Technology Helpdesk, students can loan portable recorders, microphones and audio interfaces, including cables and mic stands. The RCM provides Office 365 licenses for all members of the College and specialist music software including Sibelius, Logic, Pro Tools, Noteflight and Audacity. We also provide hardware and software for visually impaired users.

Digital support

Our digital resources can be accessed from any online device, anywhere in the world. Your studies will be supported by learn.rcm, the RCM’s virtual learning environment. Through it you can find course, faculty and assessment information, submit written assignments, upload and share audio and video recordings, as well as collaborate with RCM students and staff.

We also host collaborative masterclasses, lectures and performances with partners around the world using high-quality video conferencing and lecture capture platforms, including Microsoft Teams and Panopto, which are also used to support day-to-day learning and teaching.

A One-Touch Recording system enables students to use high-quality broadcast microphones and cameras to record themselves in any of our performance spaces. Additionally, this same system automatically records lectures, seminars, and masterclasses held in our venues, making them available later for students to watch them back on Panopto in their own time.

We recently partnered with institutions around the world to launch the Global Conservatoire, allowing you to gain new perspectives on a range of music studies in an online classroom with students from partner institutions.

Many of our concerts are filmed or recorded, and you can watch back performances, recorded lessons and faculty events via our online internal video player, RCM Stream. This valuable teaching aid provides a means of analysing and learning from your performances on any device. In addition, we livestream events at www.rcm.ac.uk/live, so your family and friends outside London can experience your performances.

RCM Studios is a commercial-grade facility, equipped with professional audio, video and composition technologies, supporting the RCM’s recording needs and enabling live broadcast of performances around the world.

RCM Studios

The RCM’s studio facilities are used on a range of technology-based courses and modules and the video production suite allows for broadcasts and recordings of RCM concerts.

Any student can book the studio, with a professional engineer, for a small fee to make recordings and videos for audition submissions, self-promotion and other purposes.

Our composition and production suites feature high-spec workstations for tuition and individual project work with a wide range of professional software such as Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase and extensive orchestral sample libraries. We also have a Digital Innovation Lab: a state-of-the-art recording and mixing suite, equipped with a Dolby Atmos 7.4.1 Genelec monitoring system, Avid S6 control surface, Apple Mac Mini workstation and Blackmagic video switching, monitoring and broadcast equipment. The Digital Innovation Lab is bookable by students and is also used for official College productions by the Studios team.

Video Tour

Tour of RCM campus

Explore our campus and facilities with members of the Students’ Union team.

Back to top