Royal Academy of Music Museum
What Visitors Say
The piano museum on the top floor is superb, with the added bonus of a window into the Academy's piano workshop. Performances on historic instruments sometimes. Good storyboards about the London piano-making industry. Similar with the strings on the first floor. The museum now has restricted opening hours, so need to check. Toilets, wheelchair access all ok.
What a charming place to hear some musicians, grab a drink and look at the stunning stained glass windows. It has a full schedule of programmes including opera and a museum. Check online. Tonight we saw some undergrads being tutored by an established musician tweaking their arms and bow struts. Very charming. Andrew the front of house manager filled us in on the history.
This should be on the bucket list of all music lovers, especially those who love the instrument(s) they play. I spent some fabulous time at the museum with very knowledgeable guides/demonstrators who are talented students of the Academy. Not only did they show me around the strings and keyboard sections, they also shared a lot about their aspirations and dreams. As an amateur pianist myself, I was naturally more drawn to the different harpsichords, clavichord and pianos, but I also discovered interesting things in the strings section, like the piccolo violin and different designs of harps. To add to the experience, the Academy's reception staff was so friendly. You felt immediately welcome from the get-go. 🙂 Highly recommended! 👍🏻
Make sure to get there before the cut-off time of 5.15 pm. Access via the main entrance. There are two Strads in the collection.
The Royal Academy of Music Museum is a fascinating place to visit, even if you are not a music expert; it is free to enter and you will discover a bit more about the history of the Royal Academy of Music as well as unique instruments, manuscripts and paintings; highly recommended if you are in the area.
Highlights
Strings Gallery
Violins, violas and cellos by leading Italian and English makers are shown with bridges, soundposts and bows to explain how design shapes tone.Stand by the arching diagrams and compare a flatter late-Cremonese belly to an earlier, higher one—tiny curves, big timbral shifts.
First floor
Historic Keyboards
Harpsichords, clavichords and early pianos chart the evolution from plucked to struck strings and the birth of dynamics.Watch the action videos: a jack plucks a harpsichord; a tangent kisses a clavichord string; a hammer transforms the piano’s voice.
Keyboard room off the main corridor
Performance Gallery
Manuscripts, concert artefacts and portraits link instruments to the musicians, teachers and composers who used them.Find an annotated score and read the pencil edits—interpretation decisions frozen on paper.
Ground floor
Sound Points
Listening stations play recordings made on collection instruments, pairing what you see with what you hear.Compare two violins recorded in the same space—hear how setup and wood resonate differently.
Throughout, beside cases
Opening Hours
Fun Facts
The museum’s strings include examples by Antonio Stradivari’s Cremonese tradition, used for research and performance as well as display.
Its keyboard collection spans from intimate clavichords ideal for private practice to concert-scale harpsichords and early pianos that illustrate changing touch and volume across the 17th–19th centuries.
Many exhibits are paired with conservation notes—soundpost moves, neck resets, or bow rehairing—showing that ‘original’ sound is the product of continuous expert maintenance.
Founded in 1822, the Academy's teaching archives feed the museum displays, linking instruments to notable alumni and professors through concert programmes and annotated parts.
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