English Folk Dance and Song Society

The Folk-Song Society, founded in London in 1898,[9] focused on collecting and publishing folk songs, primarily of Britain and Ireland although there was no formal limitation.

[15] Originally conceived as a purpose-built headquarters for the English Folk Dance Society, and now Grade II-listed, it was designed in the neo-Georgian style by architect Henry Martineau Fletcher,[16] and opened on 7 June 1930.

[15] The building's most striking feature is Kennedy Hall, a large concert and performance space with a sprung ballroom floor for dancing.

The raised musicians gallery in the main hall, destroyed by the bombing, was not reinstated; in its place the British abstract pastoral painter Ivon Hitchens was commissioned to paint a mural, which shows English folk dances and traditions.

[18] In addition to Kennedy Hall, Cecil Sharp House contains several smaller performance and rehearsal spaces; a café and bar; and the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library and Archive.

[19] In 1998, with the folk movement strongly supported by a number of other organisations and the seeds planted by EFDSS thriving, the EFDSS altered its strategy to focus on education and archiving, with its primary goal the development of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library as the country's national archive and resource centre for folk music, dance and song.

The project took place in March 2011, the artists involved being: Steve Knightley, Andy Cutting, Leonard Podolak, Jim Moray, Jackie Oates, Caroline Herring, Kathryn Roberts and Patsy Reid.

This free and searchable resource of 44,000 records and over 58,000 digitised images is the world's biggest digital archive of traditional music and dance tunes.