Our buildings
The architecture of the RA
Our buildings
We’re lucky enough to have two historic London buildings to call home: Burlington House, and Burlington Gardens. Now linked for the first time, together they form the new RA.
-
The new RA is the product of a major redevelopment that links our 17th-century mansion on Piccadilly with a grand 19th-century former university building. Designed by Sir David Chipperfield RA, the new campus allows visitors for the first time to wander freely from Burlington House to Burlington Gardens, while opening up new spaces for making, exhibiting and debating art and architecture.
Since 1867, the RA has been based in Burlington House. Back then it was in an airy suburb at the edge of town, but today, we’re at the very centre of a sprawling cosmopolitan city. In 2001, we purchased 6 Burlington Gardens, which sits directly behind Burlington House and once housed the Museum of Mankind. A few years later, we began work on a masterplan that would link the two sites, add more gallery spaces and include a brand new lecture theatre and learning centre. The new RA opened on 19 May 2018, in time for our 250th anniversary. Follow the timeline below to learn more about our historic buildings and how we’ve adapted them to suit the needs of a 21st-century academy.
-
It seemed one of those edifices in fairy-tales, that are raised by genii in a night’s time.
Horace Walpole on Burlington House
-
A timeline of our buildings
-
We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.
Winston Churchill
-
Architects and the RA
-
Forming the RA
From its foundation, architects have played a crucial role in governing the RA. It was an architect, William Chambers, who delivered the 1768 petition to King George III asking him to support the foundation of an Academy for artists and architects.
As the King’s architectural adviser, Chambers was instrumental in securing the royal seal of approval. Chambers also designed the RA’s first purpose-built home, Somerset House, which we occupied from 1780 until the 1830s, when we moved in with the National Gallery.
-
Settling into Burlington House
The RA has been at Burlington House since 1867. While the New RA represents the biggest change to our campus, several alterations have been made in the intervening years, almost all led by architect Royal Academicians. The Main Galleries, Keeper’s House and RA Schools were all designed by Sydney Smirke RA in the 1860s and 70s.
Since then, we’ve extended the Schools, built a new Library and Print Room, and remodelled the display spaces now known as the Sackler Wing of Galleries. In 2001 we gained a new site at 6 Burlington Gardens and in 2008, David Chipperfield RA’s firm was appointed to lead the RA250 masterplan, linking our two sites for the first time.
-
Planning for the future
The RA continues to elect the country’s finest architects as Royal Academicians. In 2018, we launched our Architecture Awards, honouring both new talent, with the Dorfman Award, and an enduring contribution to the culture of architecture with the RA Architecture Prize.
Our expanded campus features new spaces for architectural displays and installations, exploring contemporary issues and showcasing innovative practices. We celebrate visionary architects through both exhibitions and our year-round programme of lectures, workshops and discussions.
-
-
-
Burlington House
The architectural history of the home of the Royal Academy
On Charles II’s restoration to the throne in 1660, four of his supporters were provided with plots of land in a leafy suburb of London, on which to build their extravagant town palaces. The only one to survive – built for the poet and courtier Sir John Denham (1615–1669) and now situated in the heart of Piccadilly – became the home of the Royal Academy of Arts, its exhibitions and its Schools.
This hardback book charts the history of the estate through its many owners, including the 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694–1753), who gave the house not only its name but also its influential character and distinctive architecture, which remains an unparalleled example of the Palladian style in England.
Nicholas Savage’s thorough research studies 350 years of social and architectural history, as well as revealing the next phase in the life of the estate, with the joining up of Burlington House and James Pennethorne’s 19th-century neo-classical building that was constructed in its garden. This link opens up Burlington House as never before, in a breathtaking redevelopment led by Sir David Chipperfield to celebrate our 250th anniversary.
-
