Royal College of Music

When the Royal College of Music opened in 1883, the future King Edward VII stood before the assembled crowd and proudly announced that a mill girl, the daughter of a brickmaker, and the son of a blacksmith had taken top honors in singing. It was a radical vision of musical meritocracy in Victorian England, where class barriers typically determined who could study music professionally. The Royal College was founded specifically to challenge that system, offering scholarships based on talent rather than birthright.

The college grew from a merger of the National Training School for Music and the vision of the Prince of Wales himself, who believed Britain needed an institution to rival the conservatories of Paris and Leipzig. Architect Arthur Blomfield designed the South Kensington building in Flemish Renaissance style, all red brick and terracotta flourishes, creating a palace for music that felt both serious and accessible. By the time the doors opened, the college had already attracted over 50 scholarship students from across Britain, many from working-class backgrounds that would have barred them from traditional music education.

Today, the Royal College of Music operates on a scale that would astonish its Victorian founders. Nearly 900 students from more than 60 countries study in a vastly expanded complex that now includes the museum housing some of the world’s most significant historical instruments. Among them: the earliest known stringed keyboard instrument, built around 1480, and the oldest surviving guitar, dated to 1581. These instruments predate the institution by centuries yet still sing occasionally in the hands of students trained in historical performance practice.

The modern campus balances reverence for musical history with relentless practicality. Students practice in acoustically treated rooms where even the bedrooms are soundproofed, a necessity when hundreds of musicians are rehearsing simultaneously. The college’s commitment to accessibility continues: roughly 90 percent of students receive some form of financial support, ensuring that talent, not wealth, remains the entrance requirement.