Royal Central School of Speech & Drama
Elsie Fogerty founded the Central School at the Royal Albert Hall in 1906 — voice training for actors and, in her mind, the whole Empire's elocution. The school moved to Swiss Cottage in the 1950s, into a building now listed, and joined the University of London in 2005 with the 'Royal' title arriving the same decade.
Central teaches the crafts around the acting too — stage management, technical theatre, drama therapy — with a thoroughness that fills the industry's backstage. Its alumni are the evidence: Judi Dench and Vanessa Redgrave on stage and screen, Harold Pinter briefly in the studios, and a long roll of theatre's makers.
Field notes
- The Swiss Cottage building is Grade II listed — a 1950s theatre school largely unchanged.
- Dame Judi Dench trained here in the 1950s and keeps a close association.
- Central's drama therapy MA was the first in Britain.
Notable connections
In brief — from the field guide
Founded by Elsie Fogerty at the Royal Albert Hall in 1906 to train the voice, moved to Swiss Cottage in the fifties. The conservatoire for acting, stage management and the technical crafts — Judi Dench's school.
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