Knightsbridge or Gloucester Road

The Royal Albert Hall is open daily for tours, rehearsals and performances permitting.

020 7589 8212

The Royal Albert Hall is a lavishly ornate structure, built in honour of Prince Albert. The 8,000 capacity hall holds a wide variety of events ranging from rock concerts to boxing, but the hall is best known for the Proms. These are a series of classical concerts, named after the original practice of audience members promenading, or strolling, in some areas of the concert hall during the concert.

Following the success of the Great Exhibition, held in Hyde Park in 1851, Prince Albert proposed that a permanent facility be built for the enlightenment of the public. Progress on the scheme was slow and in 1861 Prince Albert died, without having seen his ideas come to fruition. However, a memorial was proposed for Hyde Park, with a Great Hall opposite and in 1867 Queen Victoria signed a Royal Charter for The Corporation of the Hall of Arts and Sciences, and laid the foundation stone. The Hall was designed by Captain Francis Fowke, heavily influenced by ancient Roman amphitheatres, and was completed in 1871. At the official opening after a welcoming speech by Edward, the Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria was too overcome to speak, so the Prince had to announce The Queen declares this Hall is now open.

The Royal Albert Hall, as seen from a nearby building

The Royal Albert Hall is oval in shape, with a great glass and wrought-iron dome roofing the hall to a height of 135-feet (41-metres). The building is constructed mainly of red brick, with terra cotta block decoration. Around the outside of the hall is a great mosaic frieze, depicting The Triumph of Arts and Sciences including music, sculpture, painting, architecture, agriculture, engineering, astronomy and navigation. Above the frieze is an inscription in terracotta letters. Part of it says This hall was erected for the advancement of the arts and sciences and works of industry of all nations in fulfilment of the intention of Albert Prince Consort.

Inside, the Grand Organ is the second largest pipe organ in the UK, having 147 stops and almost 10,000 speaking pipes. The original organ was built by Henry Willis & Sons in 1871, but it has been rebuilt and refurbished a number of times by Harrison & Harrison of Durham. The Hall suffered from acoustic problems, which were not completely solved until 1969 when a series of large fibreglass diffusing discs, looking like mushrooms or flying saucers, were installed in the roof to cut down the notorious echo. It used to be said that the hall was the only place where a British composer could be sure of hearing his work twice. The Royal Albert Hall has more recently undergone a programme of renovation and development to enable it to meet the demands of the next century of events and performances.

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