Hintze Hall
Sound, lighting, staging and screens for corporate events, gala dinners, awards and weddings in Hintze Hall at the Natural History Museum, London.
London's most iconic event space.
Hintze Hall is the Natural History Museum's centrepiece. A cathedral-like Victorian Romanesque space running the full length of the museum's original Waterhouse building, its soaring arched ceiling and ornate terracotta columns make it one of the most photographed interiors in Britain. Suspended overhead is Hope, the 25-metre blue whale skeleton that has become a symbol of both the museum and its commitment to the natural world.
As an accredited production partner at the Natural History Museum, Kudos AV has delivered events of every scale within Hintze Hall, from intimate gala dinners for a few hundred guests to large scale award ceremonies and product launches for over a thousand. The hall's scale demands a production team that understands both the technical complexity and the responsibility of working within a heritage environment of this significance.
Adjacent to the main hall, the Fossil Way and Dinosaur Way galleries can be incorporated into events for drinks receptions, breakout spaces or guided experiences. This allows organisers to create a fully immersive evening within the museum's most celebrated spaces.
What makes Hintze Hall unique.
The architectural scale of Hintze Hall creates both extraordinary opportunity and genuine technical challenge. The height of the space requires careful acoustic management to ensure speech is clear and music fills the room without echo. Lighting must work with the hall's existing architecture rather than against it, complementing the Victorian stonework while creating the right atmosphere for the event.
The museum operates on a dry hire basis, meaning clients bring their own caterers and suppliers from an approved list. This gives organisers full control over the event experience while working within the museum's carefully considered framework for protecting its collections and fabric.
The Natural History Museum is located on Cromwell Road in South Kensington, minutes from the tube and within easy reach of central London. The venue is available for exclusive private hire on selected evenings throughout the year.
Kudos AV at Hintze Hall.
Our accreditation means we are one of only a small number of production companies permitted to work within the museum. We bring a thorough understanding of the site's power infrastructure, rigging restrictions and operational requirements. Our team works closely with the museum's events team to ensure every installation is planned, executed and removed with the care the space deserves.
What we deliver
Acoustic Management
Line array design tuned for the hall's height and reverberation. Crystal-clear speech reinforcement throughout.
Atmospheric Lighting
Uplighting to complement the Romanesque stonework, with colour-changing wash and feature lighting that respects the architecture.
Stage and Visual
Stage builds, LED screens and projection within the hall's heritage environment, planned in full consultation with the museum.
Full Event Management
Technical project management from initial planning call through to post-event derig, working alongside the museum's events team.
Weddings in Hintze Hall
Hintze Hall is the room couples picture when they think of a Natural History Museum wedding, and it rewards a lighting led design. For a 200 guest wedding in September 2026 we uplit the terracotta from floor to vault, gave the ceremony, dinner and party three different looks, and designed, printed and built a circle bar, dancefloor and DJ booth for the night.
The hall seats 650 for dinner and 450 for a dinner dance, so it suits a large wedding as well as a smaller one that wants the space. See all our weddings and private events at the Natural History Museum.
Every kind of event in Hintze Hall
The same hall carries very different nights. We have produced Awakening Music’s 25th anniversary gala, with a 6m x 4m Unilumin LED screen and a live band, the World Homoeopathy Summit, a black tie summit and awards gala with 90 presentations in front of a 14m LED screen, MTRNM Night at the Museum, a live show with beams across the hall, and our own tenth anniversary party, with the whale and arches lit in red and pink above the stage.
Gala dinners, charity balls, award ceremonies, product launches and private parties all work here, from a few hundred guests to 1,200 standing. Tell us what your event has to do and we will design the production around the hall.
For a Hintze Hall gala dinner or awards ceremony, the production brief starts with the audience: where guests sit, where presenters enter and whether everyone can see the stage and screens. Clear speech, lighting for the presenters and reliable playback matter throughout the formal programme. We then plan the change to live entertainment or a party, with the lighting and sound designed around the hall and the museum’s agreed restrictions.
LED screens on the Hintze Hall grand staircase
At an awards show, a conference or a gala dinner, your message has to land with every table, from the front row to the back of the hall. In Hintze Hall the best place for it is the grand staircase. We raise an LED screen on the staircase landing, so the most famous view in the museum becomes the backdrop to every speech, award and presentation, with the stage at the foot of the stairs where every seat faces it.
The screen carries your branding, nominees, speaker names, slides and live camera feeds, and side screens down the hall bring the same content to the tables at the back. Around it we light the staircase and the stonework in your colours, so the screen and the architecture read as one backdrop. For Awakening Music’s 25th anniversary gala that was a 6m x 4m Unilumin P2.6 screen on the landing, sharp for the front tables and still clear from the back. See our LED screen and video work.
Need a bigger screen? Build it under the arch
If your event needs a larger display than the staircase can take, the great arch at the opposite end of Hintze Hall takes a far bigger LED wall. For the World Homoeopathy Summit we built a 14m LED screen beneath the arch, with a stage and lit risers in front of it, and carried 90 award presentations on it in a single evening.
A wall that size suits a large awards show, a conference running camera feeds and slides side by side, or a gala where the content is part of the show. The right position depends on your running order, seating plan and sight lines, and the museum signs off every build. Tell us what your event needs to say and we will recommend the screen size and where it should go.
A red carpet of light at the museum entrance
The first impression of the night happens outside. For evening events in Hintze Hall we light the museum’s entrance steps red, tread by tread, so guests walk up a red carpet made of light towards a facade glowing above them. It is the moment people stop to take a photo, and it tells every guest the night has started before they reach the door.
Every fixture is wireless and battery operated, so there are no cables across the steps, no trip hazards and nothing fixed to the building. The lights go in quickly before arrivals, run silently all evening and can be set to your brand colours instead of red. Pair it with lighting design inside the hall and the look carries from the street to the stage.
Producing an event at Hintze Hall
01Is a technician included, or is it dry hire?
Either. Equipment can go out on dry hire, or with the technicians and operators who install it, run the show and take it out again. Most events at Hintze Hall are crewed. Our quotes list install crew, operators and the project manager as separate lines, so you can see exactly what is included before you commit.
02Can you rig from the building's structure?
Only from points the venue approves, and never from anything the venue has not signed off. Our riggers work to LOLER and PLASA standards, with full load calculations and risk assessments completed before load in. The team works regularly in heritage interiors, listed beam structures and rooms with low ceilings, so the design starts from what the building allows.
03What is Hintze Hall's capacity?
1,200 standing, 650 for a seated dinner and 450 for a dinner dance, with the Fossil Way and Dinosaur Way galleries available as add-ons.
04Can you have a wedding in Hintze Hall?
Yes. The museum hosts evening weddings in the hall, and we have produced one there for 200 guests with a full lighting design and a printed bar, dancefloor and DJ booth. See the Hintze Hall wedding.
05Who has produced events in Hintze Hall?
We have, several times: a wedding for 200 guests, Awakening Music's 25th anniversary gala, the World Homoeopathy Summit with a 14m LED screen, MTRNM Night at the Museum as a live show, and our own tenth anniversary.
06How much does it cost to hire Hintze Hall?
The museum sets and publishes its own hire charges on its venue hire costs page, and they vary by day and time of year. It is dry hire, so catering, furniture and production are budgeted on top; our production quotes list every item separately.
07Can you have a gala dinner or Christmas party in Hintze Hall?
Yes. It seats 650 for dinner, and for a party we light the hall so it moves from reception to dinner to dancing, with a stage, screens and sound that work with the architecture. See the anniversary gala and the summit and awards gala we produced there.
08Why is it called Hintze Hall?
It was the museum's Central Hall until 2014, when it was renamed in recognition of a donation from Sir Michael Hintze. It is the same Victorian hall, designed by Alfred Waterhouse.
09Can you put an LED screen on the Hintze Hall staircase?
Yes. The grand staircase landing is the strongest screen position in the hall for an awards show, conference or gala dinner, because every table faces it and the museum's most famous view becomes the backdrop. We have built a 6m x 4m Unilumin P2.6 screen there with the stage at the foot of the stairs, for Awakening Music's 25th anniversary gala.
10What is the largest LED screen Hintze Hall can take?
For a bigger display the screen goes under the arch at the opposite end of the hall from the staircase. We built a 14m LED screen there for the World Homoeopathy Summit, which ran 90 award presentations in one evening. Every build is agreed with the museum before it is designed.
11Can you light the outside of the Natural History Museum for arrivals?
Yes, with the museum's agreement. We light the entrance steps red with wireless, battery operated uplighters to create a red carpet of light, and wash the facade above. Nothing is cabled across the steps or fixed to the building, and the colour can match your brand.
12Can the hall carry a full stage and screen?
Yes. We have built stage and visual production in there at scale, within the museum's rigging and fixing rules, which are agreed per event before anything is designed.
13How is the acoustic handled?
Acoustic management is the first problem in a hall that size and shape. The system is designed so speech stays intelligible under a stone vault, which usually means more, smaller sources rather than louder ones.
14Can you supply the AV for an awards dinner in Hintze Hall?
Yes. Kudos AV plans the stage, presentation screens, microphones, speaker lighting and playback for awards and gala dinners in Hintze Hall. Share your seating plan, presentation format and entertainment brief so that we can design sightlines and sound coverage around your event and agree the installation with the museum.
Gallery
Case studies
Events we have produced in Hintze Hall.
A wedding, an anniversary gala, a summit and awards gala, a live show and an anniversary party, all in the same hall.
Hintze Hall is an independent venue and Kudos AV is a production partner there, not its operator. For hire, availability and access, see the official Hintze Hall website. Kudos AV is listed on the venue’s approved suppliers page.
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