Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington is London's great Victorian concert hall, opened by Queen Victoria in 1871 as a memorial to Prince Albert. It is home to the BBC Proms each summer, stages hundreds of events a year, and runs guided tours for visitors who are not seeing a show.
Photos
Alex Rovira
The building
Designed by the Royal Engineers Francis Fowke and Henry Scott, the Grade I listed hall has an elliptical plan under a glass and wrought-iron dome 41 metres high. An 800-foot terracotta frieze, The Triumph of Arts and Sciences, wraps the exterior. Inside, the Grand Organ, nicknamed the Voice of Jupiter, has nearly 10,000 pipes. The hall seats about 5,270.
Seeing a performance
The BBC Proms have been held here every summer since 1941, and the hall's calendar runs from classical concerts to rock, comedy, tennis and ballet. Over the years it has hosted suffragette meetings, Churchill and Einstein, Muhammad Ali exhibition bouts and Eurovision in 1968. Buying a cheaper upper-level seat is a good way to take in the scale of the auditorium.
Tours and nearby
Guided tours run on most days and take you through front-of-house areas, the auditorium, the Gallery and the Royal Retiring Room, with behind-the-scenes options too. Across the road, the Albert Memorial stands in Kensington Gardens, and the Natural History Museum and other Exhibition Road museums are a short walk south. Booking a tour is the best way to see inside the hall if you cannot get tickets for a performance, and it shows areas you would not reach on a concert night.
Highlights
- Opened by Queen Victoria in 1871
- Home of the BBC Proms since 1941
- Grade I listed, with a 41m glass dome
- Grand Organ with nearly 10,000 pipes
- Guided tours on most days
Good to know
- Book tours and tickets through the hall's official website.
- Nearest Tube stations are in South Kensington and High Street Kensington; allow a walk.
Frequently asked questions
Nearby
Sources: en.wikipedia.org