Royal Festival Hall

Royal Festival Hall is one of the world’s leading performance venues. The foyers of the Royal Festival Hall are opened to the public all day, seven days a week, with free exhibitions, lunchtime concerts, evening jazz performances, shops, bars and buffets. The Hall is part of the Southbank Centre.

The Hall is famous for its wide variety of music styles and the hall was the venue for the 1960 Eurovision Song Contest, hosted by Katie Boyle.

The Royal Festival Hall was opened in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain. As well as the auditorium, the building consists of The Clore Ballroom, Southbank Centre Shop, several places to eat and drink, and the Saison Poetry Library. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected (in April 1988).

A ceremonial concert attended by King George Vl and Queen Elizabeth marked its opening. The concert hall seats 2,900 people and the orchestra platform can accommodate an orchestra of 100 and a choir of 250.

The Royal Festival Hall Archive aims to collect, manage and preserve information, documents and artefacts relating to events and exhibitions held in the performing arts and public spaces of the Southbank Centre. This includes the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and outdoor spaces around the Southbank Centre site.

The Hall is open daily from 10am-11pm. Entry to Southbank Centre and to all the buildings is free, and visitors are welcome to come into the Foyer spaces and enjoy the atmosphere with or without a ticket. This has proved very popular and the foyers are now one of the best used public spaces in London.

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The Ticket Office in Royal Festival Hall is open 10am-8pm (daily). Tickets can also be purchased for events from the website or telephone 0844 875 0073.

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