Royal Academy of Music Museum

The Royal Academy of Music Museum sits in York Gate, a Grade I-listed Nash building that once marked the entrance to Regent’s Park. Designed in 1822, the façade survived wartime bombing while the interior was rebuilt with Heritage Lottery funding. The Academy moved to Marylebone Road in 1911 and later restored York Gate for studios, practice rooms and the museum. Its three permanent galleries sit alongside rotating displays that span instruments, scores and memorabilia. Performers, makers and scholars from many disciplines are represented across the changing exhibitions. The museum holds instruments played by figures such as Sir Henry Wood and Dennis Brain, alongside manuscripts by Purcell, Schubert and Vaughan Williams. A Stradivari violin saved for the nation in 2005 is shown beside Amati violins from the 17th century. The Rutson Collection donated in 1890 includes a 1696 viola and a 1694 violin by Stradivari, while the Foyle Menuhin Archive preserves letters, photographs and artworks. Concerts and recordings often feature instruments from the academy’s collection of over 250 stringed pieces. Temporary shows have explored Yehudi Menuhin’s career and other musical legacies. Visitors enter the Ground Floor Gallery to see the Academy’s history through conducting batons, letters and restored horns. The Strings Gallery displays Cremonese violins, violas and cellos by Stradivari and Amati, with prints and engravings explaining their craftsmanship. The Piano Gallery exhibits instruments lent by private collectors, including a Stodart grand piano. Manuscripts and memorabilia fill the upper rooms, charting the institution’s growth and its links to conductors, pianists and composers. The displays reveal how the collections support teaching and performance today.