The UK's cultural venues for hire, by the numbers
501 museums, galleries, theatres, arts centres and heritage sites that hire out their spaces, broken down by type, region and city.
Venues of Note lists 501 museums, galleries, theatres, arts centres and heritage sites that hire out their spaces, as of 4 October 2026. Here’s what that list shows about where cultural venue hire happens in the UK.
Museums make up nearly half
| Type | Venues | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Museum | 240 | 48% |
| Heritage site | 72 | 14% |
| Gallery | 60 | 12% |
| Performing arts | 58 | 12% |
| Arts centre | 58 | 12% |
| Library and archive | 7 | 1% |
| Film and media | 6 | 1% |
Museums are the largest group by a long way: 240 of the 501. Heritage sites come next, followed by galleries, theatres and arts centres in roughly equal numbers. Libraries, archives and cinemas that hire out space are rarer, or harder to find.
London has one in five
| Region | Venues |
|---|---|
| London | 96 |
| Scotland | 73 |
| South West | 61 |
| South East | 60 |
| North West | 37 |
| West Midlands | 32 |
| East of England | 32 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 31 |
| Wales | 31 |
| East Midlands | 25 |
| North East | 12 |
| Northern Ireland | 6 |
| Multiple regions | 5 |
London has 96 venues, about one in five. Scotland is second with 73, more than any English region outside London. The South West and South East each have around 60.
The North East and Northern Ireland have the fewest. That probably says more about how many venues we’ve found so far than about how many hire out space, and we’re adding more.
The cities with the most venues
| City | Venues |
|---|---|
| London | 95 |
| Edinburgh | 16 |
| Glasgow | 15 |
| Bristol | 12 |
| Birmingham | 11 |
| Leeds | 11 |
| Bath | 11 |
| Manchester | 8 |
| Cambridge | 8 |
| Nottingham | 7 |
City counts leave out organisations that hire out several sites, such as the National Trust. Bath stands out: a city of under 100,000 people with as many cultural venues for hire as Birmingham or Leeds.
In all, venues on Venues of Note are spread across 238 towns and cities, and 41 of them have two or more.
Theatres and arts centres in Scotland
Scotland’s 73 venues include 20 arts centres and 14 theatres and performing arts venues. Arts centres make up 27% of Scotland’s venues, against 8% in England, and theatres 19%, against 10%. In London, theatres and performing arts venues make up 20 of the 96.
How we count
Venues of Note is a directory of distinctive venues with spaces to hire. We add venues from public sources and link each one to its own hire page; venues can claim their listing to correct it. A venue counts once even if it has several spaces to hire. Organisations that hire out many sites across the country count once, under “Multiple regions” where they span regions.
These figures are a snapshot of our listings, not a census, and they’ll change as we add venues. If your venue hires out space and isn’t listed, you can list it free.
Explore the list
Browse by region, type or town and city, or see every venue.