Royal Festival Hall
Located in the thriving Southbank Centre, the Royal Festival Hall rubs shoulders with the Hayward Gallery and the Poety Library. It’s a truly world-class precinct for arts and culture that’s well worth strolling through if you’ve got a spare afternoon.
Royal Festival Hall itself, built on the site of the old Lion Brewery, is a cavernous 2900-seat auditorium that hosts a diverse range of gigs, exhibitions and events. It suffered from poor acoustics in its original incarnation and closed for two years of refurbishments, reopening in 2007 after a £95m upgrade.
You can see if the money was well-spent when MC Solaar and Wilco play concerts next month; or you can spend an evening with Britain’s favourite polymath and natural treasure Stephen Fry when he performs Fry Live.
Great for: any kind of gig
» Belvedere Road,
SE1 8XX
Tube: Waterloo
southbankcentre.co.uk