Arts and Humanities facilities

Heslington Hall is a spectacular Grade II listed building at the heart of the University. It is being carefully redeveloped into a hub for A&Hs interdisciplinary teaching, engagement and research, including a lively programme of events. There will be public gallery space curated by our art historians, and space for postgraduate students to mix and collaborate.

It will become the new home for the Humanities Research Centre and several of our interdisciplinary research centres, and our new Liberal Arts course will be based here.

• The Humanities Research Centre
• The Centre for Medieval Studies
• The Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies
• The Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies
• The Centre for Modern Studies
• Liberal Arts students

Our £35m arts and media complex on Campus East is part of the School of Arts and Creative Technologies. Our bespoke facilities allow people to blend creative practice with industry-relevant skills. We have two professional theatres and a cinema. There are three television studios, postproduction suites, and interactive design labs. We have teaching rooms and bookable practice spaces.

Many of our industry-standard facilities are available for commercial hire.

Discover our arts and media facilities

Ron Cooke Hub is also part of the School of Arts and Creative Technologies. It includes a spacious atrium and café which are fantastic community spaces for staff, students and partners come together.

The Hub has music teaching rooms and rehearsal spaces with pianos available for practice. These are complemented by facilities on Campus West. We have two concert halls, rehearsal spaces and five recording studios. Our studios cover the history of audio recording, from analogue tape machines to contemporary digital software.

Discover our music facilities

The Piazza Building on Campus East will be home to the York School of Architecture from September 2025. It's an inspiring learning environment with a large auditorium, a restaurant and stunning lake views.

We will provide our students with everything they need to realise their architectural visions. Modern facilities will include design studios, a building materials library and digital fabrication workshops. Our computer labs will come equipped with CAD software. 

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Our archaeology facilities support the full spectrum of archaeological methods. We have the immersive outdoor York Experimental Archaeology Research (YEAR) Centre. The PalaeoHub is equipped for the study of human, animal and plant remains. Our specialist labs include the BioArCh Centre, with world-renowned bioarchaeology facilities. Our facilities have bespoke teaching spaces, specialist equipment, archives and reference collections.

A new Digital Archaeology and Heritage Laboratory opens in September 2026. It is funded by the Wolfson Foundation.

Discover our archaeology facilities

Our sector-leading multilingual conference and interpreting suite is based on Campus West. The suite is available to staff, students and commercial partners. Its integrated conference system is flexible to in-person, hybrid and remote work.

Our Department of Language and Linguistic Science also has a data lab, forensics lab and psycholinguistics lab. These facilities support our exemplary analysis of language and communication.

Discover language and linguistics facilities