Royal Albert Hall

 ROYAL ALBERT HALL

The idea for the Royal Albert Hall was seeded from the aftermath of The Great Exhibition of 1851. Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, the husband of Queen Victoria, was the mastermind behind The Great Exhibition and afterwards he saw the need for a permanent structure to replace the temporary ‘Crystal Palace.’ It was only after Albert’s death that the ball was set rolling for what was to originally be named, “The Central Hall of Arts and Sciences.’ It was opened ten years after his death in 1871, with Queen Victoria altering its name to, ‘The Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences.’

The Royal Albert Hall suitably reflected Albert’s unflagging enthusiasm for technology. The idea for the design of a huge amphitheatre was said to have come from a German immigrant acquaintance of Prince Albert’s. Built by an engineer rather than an architect, it had six million bricks used in its construction. The engineering skills are particularly evident in the forty-one metres high steel and glass dome that caps the building. A dominant feature is the mosaic frieze depicting ‘The Triumph of Arts and Sciences’ that runs around the exterior building. The finer details are best observed from the smoking gallery, although it is clearly visible even from ground level.

The hall is situated alongside Kensington Gore, on the south side of Hyde Park in central London. The hall is best known for ‘The Proms’ which take place daily over eight summertime weeks of each year, making it the world’s largest music festival, with listeners tuning in to listen from across the four compass points of the globe. However, when the hall first opened, there was widespread despair when the notoriously bad acoustics first became apparent. The echo was so bad that a common joke circulated about the Albert Hall being the only place where a British composer could be sure of hearing their work twice.

‘The Proms’ are classical music concerts that first took place at the Royal Albert Hall in 1941 and nowadays they are they are relayed to audiences in the open air in the nearby Hyde Park. ‘The Promenade Concerts’ were started by Henry Wood in 1895 and only moved to the Royal Albert Hall when their customary venue was destroyed during The Second World War. The Proms conductors’ batons wave at an average speed of three and a half miles per hour, no doubt a similar pace to the batons of Elgar, Wagner, Verdi and Rachmaninov, who all had the opportunity to conduct at The Royal Albert Hall.

Besides ‘The Proms,’ there are up to three hundred and fifty shows annually. Performers ranging from Frank Sinatra, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin to The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain have all performed on the stage. However, the amphitheatre has been used for events as random as tennis tournaments, religious meetings, poetry recitals, television and film awards, business conventions, university graduation ceremonies, circus shows, ballet and even prize fights, with the Kray twins boxing there in the 1950’s and Mohammed Ali in the 1970’s. Winston Churchill, The Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and The Queen have all spoken to distinguished audiences at the hall.

The Royal Albert Hall originally had seating for eight thousand people, reduced during renovation, completed in 2004, to just over five and a half thousands, to comply with twenty-first century safety demands. During the renovation, it was discovered that the terracotta used in the façade is a material with a tough skin and a soft heart, needing much careful attention. As a Grade I listed building, English Heritage had to oversee the renovation project, particularly every structural change, which mostly took place beneath ground level, with a new loading bay. The seven-year redevelopment cost over sixty-six million pounds, with the intention of seeing the hall through to the end of the twenty-first century in fine shape.

The Royal Albert Hall,

Kensington Gore,

London SW7 2AP

 Where to view Royal Albert Hall and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Royal Albert Hall’ category of this website.  New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.