Academy of St Martin in the Fields secures first permanent home in London

The orchestra has acquired the London Festival Orchestra, owner of The Warehouse in Waterloo, bringing its activities together and preserving rehearsal and recording space for the wider musical community.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF) has secured its first permanent operational home through the acquisition of the London Festival Orchestra (LFO), which owns The Warehouse rehearsal and recording studios in Waterloo.

Completed on 22 October, the acquisition will bring the Academy’s rehearsals, recordings, offices, library and archive under one roof. The LFO business becomes a trading subsidiary of the ASMF charity, with its profits donated to the orchestra.

A musical legacy

The transaction carries forward the work of cellist and conductor Ross Pople, who established The Warehouse in the 1990s by transforming a derelict Victorian building into a home for the London Festival Orchestra.

The LFO ceased performing after Pople suffered a serious skiing accident in 2012, but he continued to run the venue. The acquisition therefore transfers an established studio business and its building to the Academy, rather than combining two active performing ensembles.

Space for musicians and the community

The Warehouse will remain available to other orchestras, ensembles and creative organisations. It will also become a base for the Academy’s talent development programmes and Ensemble Unheard, its orchestra involving people experiencing homelessness.

Plans include acoustic improvements, coaching rooms, affordable studio hire and intimate public performances. The building will provide a permanent operational base alongside the Academy’s historic performance home at the Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

The purchase was funded by philanthropists in the UK and the United States. ASMF has also launched a campaign to raise a further £500,000 by April 2027 to support the building’s transition, initial improvements and expanded activities.