Edinburgh · Lothian Road
Usher Hall
A domed Edwardian concert hall paid for by a whisky distiller, with the best acoustics in Scotland
The International Festival orchestral programme in August
Andrew Usher made a fortune blending whisky and gave the city a concert hall in 1914, a domed circular room for twenty-two hundred that remains the best-sounding auditorium in Scotland. A renovation added a glass wing without touching the interior.
For eleven months it hosts the Scottish orchestras and touring ensembles; in August it becomes the principal orchestral venue of the Edinburgh International Festival, which is when the world's major orchestras appear here.
The detail
Good to know
- Opened
- 1914
- Capacity
- 2 200
- Donor
- Andrew Usher, whisky distiller
- August
- Main orchestral venue of the International Festival
More in Edinburgh
Three more rooms in Edinburgh
MuseumFreeEdinburgh · New Town
Scottish National Gallery
A neoclassical temple on the mound between the old and new towns, free since 1859
TheatreEdinburgh · Leith Walk
Edinburgh Playhouse
The largest working theatre in Britain by seat count, and the fringe's biggest room
LandmarkFree galleriesEdinburgh · Southside
Summerhall
A former veterinary school with thirty rooms, running the sharpest end of the fringe
Concert Halls
Elsewhere: concert halls
Concert hallIconBerlin · Tiergarten
Berliner Philharmonie
The hall that invented vineyard seating and changed concert architecture worldwide
Concert hallStanding roomLondon · South Kensington
Royal Albert Hall
A Victorian rotunda for five thousand, and eight weeks each summer of the world's largest classical festival
Concert hallFree concertsAmsterdam · Museumplein
Royal Concertgebouw
A shoebox hall from 1888 that most conductors put in their top three in the world