Royal Worcester is a porcelain brand based in Worcester, England. It was established in 1751 and is believed to be the oldest or second oldest remaining English porcelain brand still in existence today, although this is disputed by Royal Crown Derby, which claims 1750 as its year of establishment. Part of the Portmeirion Group since 2009, Royal Worcester remains in the luxury tableware and giftware market, although production in Worcester itself has ended.

The Worcester Royal Porcelain Co. Ltd. (known as Royal Worcester) was formed in 1862, and although the company had a royal warrant of appointment from 1788, wares produced before that time, as well as those produced at two other factories in Worcester, are known as Worcester porcelain. The enterprise has followed the pattern of other leading English porcelain brands, with increasing success during the 18th and 19th centuries, then a gradual decline during the 20th century, especially the latter half.

Prior to 1751, John Wall, a physician, and William Davis, an apothecary, attempted to develop a method of making porcelain that could then be used to boost prosperity and employment in Worcester. The success of their early experimentation is unknown (the chemical composition of the sherds from the early 1750s confirms that Wall and Davis did manufacture a novel type of porcelain distinct from the later soapstone one), but they clearly came into contact around 1750–1751 with the Bristol porcelain manufactory of Lund and Miller, who were using steatite as a raw material. This appears to have been a unique method for producing porcelain at the time.

In 1751, Wall and Davis persuaded a group of 13 businessmen to invest in a new factory at Warmstry House, Worcester, England, on the banks of the River Severn (the site was leased on 16 May, and the partnership agreement was signed on 4 June), but whether the business plan put forward to the prospective partners was based on the future buy out of Lund's Bristol porcelain factory is uncertain. Wall and Davis secured the sum of £4500 from the partners to establish the factory, known then as "The Worcester Tonquin Manufactory"; the original partnership deeds are still housed in the Museum of Worcester Porcelain.

Richard Holdship, a Quaker and major shareholder, was prominent in the process of the subsequent ‘buy out’ of the Bristol manufactory in early 1752. Holdship personally bought from Benjamin Lund, a fellow Quaker, the soaprock licence that ensured the mining of 20 tons p.a. of soaprock from Cornwall.

The early wares were soft-paste porcelain with bodies that contained soaprock, commonly called in most ceramic circles as soapstone. The chemical analyses of these wares closely correlates to those of the Bristol manufactory. This places Worcester in a group of early English potteries including Caughley and factories in Liverpool.

In 1783, the factory was purchased by Thomas Flight—the former London sales agent for the concern—for £3,000. He let his two sons run the concern, with John Flight taking the lead role till his death in 1791. In 1788 George III, following a visit to the company, granted it a royal warrant, and it became known as the "Royal Porcelain Works". Knowledge of this period is largely a result of the excellent diary that John Flight kept from 1785 to 1791. This is discussed in detail in Appendix III of Flight & Barr Worcester Porcelain by Henry Sandon.

During this period, the factory was in poor repair. Production was limited to low-end patterns of mostly Blue and White porcelains after Chinese porcelain designs of the period. It was also pressured by competition from inexpensive Chinese export porcelain, and from Thomas Turner's Caughley (pronounced "Calf-ley") Factory. Martin Barr joined the firm as a partner in 1792; porcelains of this period are often identified by an incised capital "B" and, later, by more elaborate printed and impressed marks.