Performance venues

London's stages and concert rooms: the West End houses and the playhouses that make their own shows, the grand halls, the churches with a musical life, the jazz basements, the comedy clubs, the clubs proper, and the rooms above pubs where things start. What is on is listed under each venue, and in What's On.

What is on at them this week is in What's On: Performance

Tell us what we can do better, or what you’re trying to discover.

LSO St Luke's

A Hawksmoor church that stood roofless for thirty years, rebuilt by the London Symphony Orchestra as its rehearsal and concert hall.

ClassicalFree to hearLunchtime concertsWorth it for the building

Photo by Tarquin Binary~commonswiki, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

The church went up in 1733 with an obelisk instead of a spire, which is the detail that gives it away as Hawksmoor's. It was closed in 1959 when the ground beneath it began to shift, and the roof was removed to stop the walls being pulled over; for the next forty years it stood as a shell with trees growing inside it.

The London Symphony Orchestra took it on and reopened it in 2003 with a new hall built inside the old walls. It is where the orchestra rehearses, where BBC Radio 3 records chamber music, and where the LSO plays free Friday lunchtime concerts - players from the orchestra and the Guildhall School, no ticket, an hour at 12:00.

Where
161 Old Street, EC1V 9NG
Nearest station
Old Street · 6 min walk

Coming up

NearbyPerformance venues

NearbyOther Categories

See more nearby listings

Submit a correction for this listing.

Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

Which area are you in?