Royal Albert Hall

The Royal Albert Hall was built with profits from the Great Exhibition, and commemorated the death of Prince Albert in 1861. Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone in 1867, and opened it four years later on the 29th March 1871.

The building was designed by Captain Francis Fowke and Henry Darracott, but problems with the acoustics led to it being labelled less than suitable for music – a terrible echo from the domed roof led to a famous joke: The Royal Albert Hall is the only place where a British composer can be sure of hearing his work twice. The problem was eventually solved in 1969, when a series of large fibreglass discs were suspended from the roof.

The Proms concerts

The most famous event held at London’s Albert Hall are the Sir Henry Wood Promenade Concerts – or The Proms. They were originally held in the Queen’s Hall on South Bank, until the Germans bombed it in 1941. They then transferred to the Royal Albert Hall and rose in popularity.

They are held for seven weeks every summer when visiting orchestras, famous soloists and conductors join in with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The famous ‘last night’ is a typically rowdy affair, with bombastic classical pieces and nationalistic roof-busters.

• Information
• History
• Famous events

Facts and information

Address:

Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington,
London SW7 2AP
England

Telephone:

Work +44 (0) 207 589 3203

Bus route:

9 10 49 52 70 360 452

Train station:

Gloucester Road, High Street Kensington, Knightsbridge, South Kensington

Opening times:

Guided tour - 10–3 (Fri–Tue)

^{Royal Albert HallRoyal Albert Hall, London}

^{Albert Hall’s opening night, 1871First concert, 19th March 1871}

Famous events held at the Royal Albert Hall

Demonstration of Morse code (1872)
Dinner party for 1,400 guests (1888)
Ice Carnival, with snow shoe races (1889)
Amateur boxing contest (1908)
26-mile marathon – 524 circuits (1909)
Titanic Band Memorial Concert (1912)
Mass baptism (1928)
The Ford Motor Show (1931)
World table-tennis championships (1938)
Boxing match involving the Krays (1951)
World trampoline championships (1964)
Eurovision song contest (1968)
Miss World contest (1969)
Muhammad Ali boxing match (1971)
Queen’s Christmas speech (1989)
Sumo wrestling competition (1991)
Lecture by Stephen Hawking (1995)
‘This is Your Life’ for David Essex (1995)
John McEnroe vs. Bjorn Borg (1997)

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