Our Venues and Facilities

Looking up into the automation and lighting of the Milton Court Theatre

Our Campus

Our facilities include the Grade II-listed Silk Street building, part of the distinctive and architecturally-renowned Barbican complex, and Milton Court, our newer site across the road.

Milton Court’s world-class performance and training spaces include a state of the art concert hall, a lyric theatre, a studio theatre and several major rehearsal rooms.

Silk Street offers a more intimate music hall, a dedicated lecture recital room, a completely flexible theatre, theatrical workshops and labs, electronic music studios, recording and sound studios, and over 40 teaching and practice rooms.

We also have an Annexe with a further 44 teaching and practice rooms, and our Sundial Court Hall of Residence.

360° tour of our School

Look inside and walk around the School and accommodation in our 360° tour below. Use the navigation options to check out all the locations.

Guildhall Studio Orchestra on stage in Milton Court Concert Hall for a rehearsal

Performance Venues

Guildhall’s five public performance venues have exceptional acoustic properties and extensive seating capacity.

Full jazz big band

Music

Our Milton Court Concert Hall is the largest conservatoire concert hall in London, with state of the art acoustics and technical facilities. Solo recitals, chamber music and medium-sized orchestral performances all take place here.

Opera productions are staged in the Silk Street Theatre, a large, flexible theatre space with orchestra pit, and also occasionally in Milton Court Theatre.

Actors on stage speaking to the director during a rehearsal

Drama

Live productions take place in our three distinctive theatres, offering an exciting mix of industry-standard performance spaces to explore: Silk Street Theatre, a large versatile space; Milton Court Theatre, a proscenium arch theatre; and the intimate Milton Court Studio Theatre.

Production Arts student in hard hat and high-vis vest walking across the tension wire grid

Production Arts

All of our professional-standard performance venues are equipped with state of the art equipment, and are particularly well-equipped for lighting and sound and provide dramatic and adaptable environments. They are stimulating and exciting at the same time as being practical, safe and ideal for learning.

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Joshua Weilerstein conducting during a Guildhall Chamber Orchestra rehearsal

Guildhall Chamber Orchestra rehearse in Milton Court Concert Hall

singer with studio orchestra

Guildhall Studio Orchestra perform in Milton Court Concert Hall (photo - Matthew Ferguson, FG Studios)

Prop paper money raining down on the stage as the chorus and singers snatch them out of the air

Performance of Judith Weir's opera 'Miss Fortune' in the Silk Street Theatre (photo by Helen Murray)

Actors dancing boisteriously on stage

Drama production of 'Provok'd: A Restoration' in the Silk Street Theatre (photo by Mihaela Bodlovic)

Actors walking down a long platform on stage, with a large video projected background behind them

Drama production of Zinnie Harris' 'The Wheel' in Milton Court Theatre (photo by Mihaela Bodlovic)

Lighting student working at a lighting desk during a technical rehearsal with the actors on stage

Technical rehearsal on Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s 'Emilia' (photo by Helen Murray)

ensemble of actors on set of Mr Burns

Anne Washburn's 'Mr. Burns, a post-electric play' in the Milton Court Studio Theatre (photo by Mihaela Bodlovic)

Stage Management students at work on a production

Production Arts work in the Milton Court Studio Theatre (photo by Mihaela Bodlovic)

orchestra rehearsing

Guildhall Jazz Festival performance in the Silk Street Music Hall (photo by Sam Dye)

Strings players in the Music Hall, rehearsing in real time over the low latency network

Low-latency rehearsal for the 2020 Music Gold Medal in the Silk Street Music Hall (photo by Clive Totman)

Marin Alsop conducts an orchestal rehearsal in Silk Street Music Hall

Orchestral rehearsal with LSO players in the Silk Street Music Hall (photo by Paul Cochrane)

Actors read lines from scripts during a rehearsal

Rehearsal & Technical Facilities

Milton Court includes rehearsal rooms, a TV studio, a rehearsal gym and teaching rooms, and a well-equipped computer room with CAD and media production software.

Students have access to over 80 solo practice studios, several medium-sized ensemble rooms, electronic music studios and recording facilities. The recording studio and performance spaces are used for workshops, portfolio recordings and CD/DVD production to fully professional standards.

The School offers dedicated studios for Electronic & Produced Music students. Our main studio is specifically designed for the front and back end of the production process (recording and mixing/mastering), featuring an acoustically isolated control room, recording booths and tie lines to multiple spaces for recording of larger ensembles.

Read more about our recording facilities

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Electronic music student at a mixing desk in a studio

Electronic Music student working in the studios in Silk Street (photo by Paul Cochrane)

Wide shot of actors in a rehearsal room

Rehearsal for the drama production of Provok'd: A Restoration in Milton Court (photo by Paul Cochrane)

Strings chamber musicians in a practice room, preparing for a performance

Students rehearse in a Silk Street practice room ahead of the Chamber Music Festival (photo by Paul Cochrane)

Opera chorus in a rehearsal

Rehearsal for an opera production of 'The Angel Esmeralda' in Milton Court (photo by Em Davis)

Music Therapy students in class around a piano

Music Therapy class in the John Hosier Annexe (photo by Paul Cochrane)

full jazz band recording in tv studio

Big Band recording session in the Milton Court TV Studio

Actor in front of a green screen on the set of Senseless

Production Arts Facilities

Whichever Production Arts programme you choose, you will receive expert training in our well-equipped, flexible performance spaces.

Guildhall School's professional-standard performance venues with state-of-the-art equipment allow our programmes to keep in line with current practice and new theatre technology. Students use the School’s on-site theatres, rehearsal rooms, workshops and costume department to collaborate on major productions and a range of smaller projects and events.

Production Arts Facilities

Our students receive expert training in our well-equipped, flexible performance spaces.

Milton Court Theatre: a proscenium arch theatre seating 223, with a fully-automated flying system which is unique in theatre schools around the world.

Silk Street Theatre: a flexible theatre seating up to 308 in various formats, including proscenium, promenade, thrust and in-the-round. It has counterweight flying and with its large orchestra pit is the venue for our major operas and musicals.

Milton Court Studio Theatre: a flexible studio theatre seating up to 128. This space has a tension wire grid, allowing easy and safe positioning and focusing of lighting equipment and rigging of scenic elements.

Milton Court Concert Hall: this impressive performance hall has world-class acoustics and can seat up to 608. The concert platform is composed of a series of automated lifts, allowing for a wide variety of formats from solo performances to rehearsals for a full symphony orchestra.

Other Guildhall facilities you will use include the scenic workshop, paintshop, props workshop, design realisation studio, costume workshop and dye room, and sound and video editing studios. You will also have access to the lighting and theatre technology lab, stage electrics workshop, and production and stage management offices.

See inside

Silhouetted actor and camera operator in front of a video projected background

Students work with augmented reality and video projection for 'Senseless' in the Milton Court Studio Theatre (photo by Em Davis)

Looking up into the automation and lighting of the Milton Court Theatre

Automation in the Milton Court Theatre (photo by Morley von Sternberg)

Building 'Barbarians': Backstage with Design Realisation

Step inside the Guildhall Costume Store

Behind the Scenes of the Summer Rep Productions

The Making of 'Senseless' - XR Video Design for the Stage

Stage Managing a Guildhall Drama Production in the Silk Street Theatre

Backcloth painting timelapse for 'Barbarians', captured in the paintshop

Costume student breaking down some red converse all stars

Costume student breaking down trainers in the dye room (photo by Paul Cochrane)

Production Arts student working on the tension wire grid

Students working on the tension wire grid in the Milton Court Studio Theatre (photo by Mihaela Bodlovic)

Students chatting at a bench table on lakeside terrace on a sunny day

Study and Relaxation

Our spaces for study and relaxation include a library, two student common rooms, two cafés and a peaceful lakeside terrace. Guildhall students have access to one of the UK’s leading performing arts libraries and excellent studio and IT resources.

Full-time students can apply for the School’s Hall of Residence, Sundial Court, just around the corner from our Silk Street building and Milton Court.

Read more about the Library

More School Facilities