Venue of the month

The UK’S best concert halls

10. Pittville Pump Room

Where: Cheltenham

Built: 1825

Seats: 412

When George III came to Cheltenham in 1788, musical entertainment was the last thing on his mind – he was, instead, here to consume the local mineral water for the sake of his health. His visit sparked a boom in popularity for the Gloucestershire town, which soon became graced by an array of elegant new buildings. The finest of these, overlooking the rolling lawns of Pittville Park, was the Pittville Pump Room.

Ironically, the spa’s waters dried up relatively soon after the Pump Room opened in the 1820s, but it continues to flourish today, not least as a first-rate concert venue. Since 1945, when the first ever Cheltenham Music Festival took place, many great composers and performers – Michael Tippett and Peter Maxwell Davies, to name but two – have filled the building’s ornate dome with their artistry or had their photos taken standing beside its ionic pillars.

The morning chamber music concerts at the Pump Room are the very heart and soul of the Festival, loved for the venue’s intimacy and excellent acoustic. Evening events are also held there too, however, and, outside Festival time, the building continues to hold a regular season of concerts.