diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index afbe15f14..d12efd4e0 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/yggdrasil-network/yggdrasil-go v0.3.15-0.20201006093556-760d9a7fd5ee
 	go.uber.org/atomic v1.6.0
 	golang.org/x/crypto v0.0.0-20200820211705-5c72a883971a
+	golang.org/x/net v0.0.0-20200528225125-3c3fba18258b
 	gopkg.in/h2non/bimg.v1 v1.1.4
 	gopkg.in/yaml.v2 v2.3.0
 )
diff --git a/internal/setup/base.go b/internal/setup/base.go
index 8bc4ae17a..4e1cee479 100644
--- a/internal/setup/base.go
+++ b/internal/setup/base.go
@@ -15,8 +15,10 @@
 package setup
 
 import (
+	"crypto/tls"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
+	"net"
 	"net/http"
 	"net/url"
 	"time"
@@ -25,6 +27,8 @@ import (
 	"github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/internal/httputil"
 	"github.com/matrix-org/gomatrixserverlib"
 	"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promhttp"
+	"golang.org/x/net/http2"
+	"golang.org/x/net/http2/h2c"
 
 	"github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/internal"
 	"github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/userapi/storage/accounts"
@@ -107,7 +111,22 @@ func NewBaseDendrite(cfg *config.Dendrite, componentName string, useHTTPAPIs boo
 		logrus.WithError(err).Warnf("Failed to create cache")
 	}
 
-	apiClient := http.Client{Timeout: time.Minute * 10}
+	apiClient := http.Client{
+		Timeout: time.Minute * 10,
+		Transport: &http2.Transport{
+			AllowHTTP: true,
+			DialTLS: func(network, addr string, _ *tls.Config) (net.Conn, error) {
+				// Ordinarily HTTP/2 would expect TLS, but the remote listener is
+				// H2C-enabled (HTTP/2 without encryption). Overriding the DialTLS
+				// function with a plain Dial allows us to trick the HTTP client
+				// into establishing a HTTP/2 connection without TLS.
+				// TODO: Eventually we will want to look at authenticating and
+				// encrypting these internal HTTP APIs, at which point we will have
+				// to reconsider H2C and change all this anyway.
+				return net.Dial(network, addr)
+			},
+		},
+	}
 	client := http.Client{Timeout: HTTPClientTimeout}
 	if cfg.FederationSender.Proxy.Enabled {
 		client.Transport = &http.Transport{Proxy: http.ProxyURL(&url.URL{
@@ -269,10 +288,17 @@ func (b *BaseDendrite) SetupAndServeHTTP(
 	internalServ := externalServ
 
 	if internalAddr != NoListener && externalAddr != internalAddr {
+		// H2C allows us to accept HTTP/2 connections without TLS
+		// encryption. Since we don't currently require any form of
+		// authentication or encryption on these internal HTTP APIs,
+		// H2C gives us all of the advantages of HTTP/2 (such as
+		// stream multiplexing and avoiding head-of-line blocking)
+		// without enabling TLS.
+		internalH2S := &http2.Server{}
 		internalRouter = mux.NewRouter().SkipClean(true).UseEncodedPath()
 		internalServ = &http.Server{
 			Addr:    string(internalAddr),
-			Handler: internalRouter,
+			Handler: h2c.NewHandler(internalRouter, internalH2S),
 		}
 	}