Royal Festival Hall
Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
Royal Festival Hall Tickets
Taylor Mac: A 24-Decade History of Popular Music
Royal Festival Hall
Tickets from £20.00From the award-winning and visionary New York artist Taylor Mac, accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra, comes a breath-taking journey through the soul of America, a concert experience that reimagines history as a dazzling, deeply personal musical experience, spanning 240 years of American history. Part orchestral concert, part performance art, this provocative, celebratory show is filled with extraordinary costumes and irreverent humour, and challenges audiences to reconsider whose stories are told and how we listen to them.
- Opens: Thursday, 26 November 2026
Booking until: Thursday, 26 November 2026 - Running time: 2hr. No interval.
- Starring: Taylor Mac
- Playing at: Royal Festival Hall
- Booking until: Thursday, 26 November 2026
Cirque Alice
Royal Festival Hall
Tickets from £37.00Cirque Alice reimagines Lewis Caroll's beloved and eccentric story of Alice in Wonderland through extraordinary acts from some of the greatest performers around the globe. Featuring aerialists and acrobats, mind-bending contortionists, exquisite puppetry, and special guest musical acts, you'll get to experience your favourite characters like the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, and the Queen of Hearts and see the mind-boggling world of Wonderland come to life as you've never seen it before.
- Opens: Saturday, 12 December 2026
Booking until: Sunday, 3 January 2027 - Running time: 2hr.
- Playing at: Royal Festival Hall
- Booking until: Sunday, 3 January 2027
Royal Festival Hall Facilities
- Air conditioned
- Bar
- Disabled toilets
- Infrared hearing loop
- Restaurant
- Toilets
- Wheelchair/scooter access
Royal Festival Hall Location
Travel Information
Nearest Tube station
- Waterloo
- Embankment
Nearest Rail Station
- Waterloo
Tube lines
- Bakerloo
- Northern
- Circle
- District
- Jubilee
- Waterloo & City
Day buses
- (York Road) 76, 77, 341, 381, 507, RV1; (Waterloo Road) 1, 4, 26, 59, 68, 139, 168, 171, 172, 176, 188, 243, 521, X68
Night buses
- (York Road) 341, N76, N381; (Waterloo Road) 139, 176, 188, 243, N1, N68, N171, N343
Royal Festival Hall Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get to the Royal Festival Hall?
The Hall stands on Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX, on the South Bank. Waterloo is the closest station, around five minutes on foot, and Embankment is barely further if you cross the Golden Jubilee footbridge — a walk worth taking for the view back towards Westminster. Buses run along Waterloo Bridge and York Road, and the riverside path brings you past the building whether you meant to come that way or not.
What accessible facilities does the Royal Festival Hall have?
The building is step free throughout, with ramps and lifts to every level. For step-free entry use the door by the Queen Elizabeth Hall slip road and take the glass lift up to the main foyer, or the external lift beside the artists' entrance on Belvedere Road. Wheelchair spaces sit at the back of the Front Stalls, in the Side Stalls, at the back of the Rear Stalls and in some of the boxes, so there is a choice of price and sightline rather than one fixed spot. An induction loop serves the auditorium and headsets are available for audio-described performances. A Changing Places toilet, with hoist, adjustable bench, adjustable basin and shower, is on Level 1 next to the Singing Glass Lift; the key is held at the Welcome Desk on Level 2.
How early can I arrive at the Royal Festival Hall?
Much earlier than you would at a West End theatre, and it is worth doing. The foyers are open through the day as a public space, with bars, places to eat and somewhere to sit without a ticket in your hand, and free music often plays on the foyer stage. Thirty minutes before the concert is enough to find your seat, but an hour turns the visit into an evening — the terrace and the river are part of what you came for.
Royal Festival Hall history
From the outside
A massive complex built in 1950s Modernist style that looks as fresh today as when it was new, the Royal Festival Hall has recently undergone restoration to create a beautifully lit wood-panelled auditorium with bright lighting and an airy high ceiling.
Royal Festival Hall architecture and history
The foundation stone of the Royal Festival Hall was laid in 1949 by the Prime Minister of the time, Clement Attlee, on a site where a brewery dating back to 1837 used to stand. Although only built in the 1950s, the Royal Festival Hall is Grade One listed by English Heritage in 1998 in recognition of its unique style. It has the honour of being the first ever post-war building to be so protected.
Created as part of the prestigious Festival of Britain by the architect firm Holland, Hannen and Cubitts and designed by young up and coming architects Leslie Martin, Robert Matthew and Peter Moro, the venue officially opened its magnificent doors in 1951.
The building was changed almost beyond recognition in 1964, when the famous foyers and river terraces were added. And the alterations also removed the Scandinavian-style, modernist face to make it even plainer. Later still, raised concrete walkways were added to serve the nearby Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and The Hayward, completed in 1968.
Controlled by the Greater London Council for many years, the Hall was taken over by the Arts Council in 1986. Since the late ‘80s the hall has opened its massive foyer to the public during the day, and today they are one of the most popular and widely enjoyed public spaces in the city.
In 2005 Allies and Morrison Architects renovated the building again, sorting out the acoustics, which were so dreadful that they allegedly made performers ‘lose the will to live’! The stage canopy and walls were also reconstructed, despite the objections of conservationists. The hall eventually reopened in 2007 with Jarvis Cocker's famous Meltdown festival, opening with the band Motorhead.
Past shows at the Royal Festival Hall
A classic concert hall, the famous London Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestras perform most of their London concerts at the Royal Festival Hall. Over the years it has hosted countless famous music events from classical to rock, folk to full orchestral performances.
Royal Festival Hall access
Every level in the auditorium is accessible via lifts. There are spaces for wheelchair users and companions in the rear stalls, rows AA and XX, the side stalls in row W, Boxes 3 and 31 and row B of the choir. Plus there are easy-access seats in rows A, B, BB, XX, W, X of the stalls and the bottom and top tier of the boxes.
Royal Festival Hall tickets
We’re a popular destination for a wide variety of seat types and prices, with excellent availability on the full range of Royal festival Hall tickets.