Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, London

Known simply as The Bhavan, this is the UK arm of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, the cultural and educational movement whose 110 centres are mostly in India. It describes itself as the only organisation in the UK offering this range of traditional Indian cultural activity under one roof, and says around 800 students a week come through its doors. It is a teaching centre and a venue rather than a gharana; its music faculty come from several traditions, Hindustani and Carnatic alike.

Classes run in more than 23 subjects, including Hindustani vocal music, sitar, tabla, Hindustani flute, Carnatic vocal music, Carnatic violin, mridangam, Bengali music, four classical dance forms, languages and yoga. New students join an Open (beginners) class and are assessed by the teacher; after a year, or on reaching the standard, they move to a three-year Diploma, examined in theory and practice at the end of the summer term by Bhavan staff and external examiners, some invited from India, with a 60% attendance requirement. A two-year Post-Diploma and Advanced classes follow.

Its music faculty, as listed in September 2026: Chandrima Misra (Hindustani vocal, a Trinity College London fellow who trained with Ustad Munawar Ali Khan), Mehboob Nadeem (sitar, from a traditional Agra gharana family), Rajkumar Misra (tabla), Gaurav Uniyal (Hindustani flute), and on the Carnatic side Sampath Kumaracharya Daruri, Balu Raguraman and M. Balachandar, with Sajali Roy teaching Bengali music since 2005. Public contact as published: 020 7381 3086, info@bhavan.net. Courses, terms and fees should be taken from The Bhavan's own site.

The Bhavan UK was established in London in 1972 and moved to its present premises in West Kensington in 1978 — a converted building on Castletown Road that has served ever since as classroom, concert hall and gallery. It trades as Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Ltd, registered charity no. 312879. Alongside teaching it runs a year-round programme of concerts, dance productions, talks and exhibitions, and outreach work; Ravi Shankar, a friend and supporter of the centre, is quoted on its own site as saying that if there is one place in the UK where Indian art and culture is taught and practised in the true traditional sense, it is the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Checked September 2026: the centre is operating, with an Open Day on 12 September 2026 and an autumn events programme.

The centre is a venue as much as a school: the Mountbatten Auditorium seats 295, with the Hathi Hall, the Meghraj Library, the M.P. Birla Millennium Art Gallery, two dance studios, nine classrooms and guest rooms for visiting artists. It presents over a hundred performances a year — by its own account the largest programme of South Asian performing and visual arts by any organisation in the UK — and by 2022 counted six full-time and fifteen part-time teachers. Pandit Ravi Shankar was a friend of the centre; his daughter Anoushka Shankar, closing its golden jubilee year at the Diwali gala of 2023, recalled visiting it with him as a child.