Our temporary home for 2024/5: Hansom Hall
Due to building work at the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery (a new café area and a 180 degree re-orientation of the Victorian Gallery) our concerts will take place at the historic Hansom Hall in Belvoir Street.
Built by Joseph Hansom of Hansom cab fame, 1845, this former Baptist chapel is owned by Leicester City Council. It was recently used as the City Library, and is now part of the Adult Education Centre.
In 2014, £250k was spent on the building to open it up as an Arts Centre, complete with café/bar. It reopened in January 2015.
You will be pleased to hear that our wonderful Steinway Model D, much admired by visiting pianists, has moved with us to our new venue
find us
Our regular home: Leicester Museum and Art Gallery
address
Hansom Hall
Leicester Adult Education College, 50-54 Belvoir St, Leicester LE1 6QL
New Walk is a leafy pedestrian way leading from Leicester city centre to Victoria Park. Laid out in the early 19th Century, New Walk is unique in English urban planning. The Museum was originally built as a school, but was converted into a museum in 1849, since when the building has undergone a number of revisions. There is an interesting display showing these adjacent to the café. Nicholas Pevsner described the entrance as a ‘dignified, somewhat heavy four-column portico of giant Tuscan columns’.
The centrepiece of the Museum’s possessions is a significant collection of Victorian Art housed in the splendid newly refurbished main gallery. New Walk Museum also has an important collection of German Expressionist paintings and a unique display of Picasso ceramics gifted to the Museum by the late Lord Attenborough. There are always interesting temporary exhibitions to see too.
The Victorian Art Gallery, with its excellent acoustic and Steinway grand piano, has hosted some of the UK’s finest classical chamber musicians. An annual season of Lunchtime Concerts, presented in association with Leicester Museums, has just completed 78 years and the more recent Leicester International Music Festival is now in its 30th year.
The Festival attracts outstanding international musicians and is now one of the UK’s leading festivals of classical chamber music.
Access
automatic doors
external and internal ramps/lift
disabled toilets on ground floor
guide dogs welcome (please specify when booking)
wheelchair spaces available: can be reserved with a complimentary seat for a carer (please specify when booking and leave contact details in order for us to provide the best possible experience)
