Since its official unveiling by Queen Victoria in March 1871, the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington has hosted more than 30,000 events, attracting nearly 1.7 million people to its live performances every year. Providing a platform for global leaders from the world of arts, science, sport and politics, audiences have listened to the impassioned speeches of the suffragette movement, the psychedelic sounds of Jimi Hendrix, and the spiritual teachings of the Dalai Lama. Known affectionately as ‘The Albert’, the Grade 1 listed building receives no public funding for its running costs as a registered charity, yet it remains a symbol of hope and unity, inspiring future generations.

Gates to the glorious and unknown
The story of the Royal Albert Hall dates back to October 1851, directly after the success of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry in All Nations. Organised in Hyde Park by Prince Albert (with the support of Henry Cole), the five-month event attracted six million people from across the globe. Inspired by this resurgence of public interest, the prince proposed the idea of a permanent ‘cultural quarter’ to promote art, science and industry, as part of the ‘Albertopolis’ area stretching from the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea through to the City of Westminster. However, the prince died unexpectedly in 1861, so it fell to the Royal Commission to purchase Gore House and its three-acre estate in Kensington with some of the proceeds from the Great Exhibition at a cost of £200,000. It would take another six years before work could begin on the exhibition space, after Queen Victoria allocated most of the budget towards the Albert Memorial in nearby Kensington Gardens.

The queen laid the first foundation stone on May 20, 1867, under a large marquee on the site of ‘The Central Hall of Arts and Sciences’, with an estimated 10,000 people in attendance. Using a hand-made golden trowel, the queen buried a glass vessel ‘time capsule’ containing gold and silver coins with an inscription beneath the cavity of the red Aberdeen granite stone, where it can be now be found under Stall K, row 11, seat 87, inside the main auditorium. Queen Victoria announced her intention to rename the building as ‘The Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences’ in honour of the prince consort, before a 21-gun salute was fired from Hyde Park to conclude the ceremony. The first concert took place before the official opening on February 25, 1871, with the queen and the Prince of Wales taking their place as the special guests of honour alongside 7,000 guests including workmen and their families, various dignitaries and selected members of the general public. Powered by gaslight, the hall hosted 36 shows in its first year, and it was during this time that the hall formed the Royal (Albert Hall) Choral Society – which continues to maintain the longest association with the hall today. Edward, the Prince of Wales, gave the welcoming address at the hall’s inauguration on 29 March 1871, as the queen was too grief stricken to comment.

Expertise
Built by the Lucas Brothers, the concert hall is a testament to the consummate skill and craftsmanship of chief architects Major-General Henry Young Darracott Scott and Captain Francis Fowke of the Royal Engineers, who took inspiration from the engravings of the ancient amphitheatres of ancient Greece and Rome. Created by seven Victorian artists, ‘The Triumph of Arts and Letters’ is a mosaic frieze chronicling 16 areas of human accomplishment throughout history, including ‘Music’ by Frederick Richard Pickersgill, and ‘Architecture’ by William Frederick Yeames. Encircling the roof’s outer perimeter in an anticlockwise fashion, the artwork measures 800 feet long and 5,200 square feet. Terracotta letters are inscribed 12 inches (300 mm) high above the frieze, with historical facts and biblical quotations.

The wrought iron oval dome, created by Rowland Mason Ordish, has a 338-tonne iron metal frame supporting the weight of 279 tonnes of glazing, and a glazed-iron roof measuring 20,000 square feet. Damaged by an unexploded shell in October 1917, flying shrapnel smashed eight panes of glass, damaging 12 terracotta blocks. To prevent further incidents occurring, the glazing was painted black in the event of future air raids, and coated with anti-splintering varnish in March 1940. In 1969, the Yorkshire Fibreglass Company made 135 ‘mushroom’ acoustic diffusers to improve the poor sound quality caused by an echo due to a cove in the ceiling. Engineers took out 50 fibreglass diffusers in 2001, and reconfigured the remaining ones. A grand organ serves as the hall’s ‘centrepiece’ in the main auditorium. Originally built by Henry ‘Father’ Willis in 1871, the organ cost £8,000 to build (the equivalent to 4% of the building’s original cost). Rebuilt in the early millennium, the organ consists of 9,999 pipes and 147 stops, making it the second largest organ in the UK (after the Liverpool Cathedral Grand Organ).

National pride
A firm fixture at the Queen’s Hall since their inauguration in 1895, The Proms relocated to the Royal Albert Hall after the Queen’s Hall was damaged during an air raid in May 1941. Founded by Sir Henry Wood, the ‘BBC Proms’ performs every summer for eight weeks and runs 70 concerts, concluding with the Last Night of the Proms. An estimated 390 shows take place in the main auditorium every year, from ballet and opera, to film screenings, award ceremonies and annual charity concerts from organisations including the Teenage Cancer Trust and the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance. An additional 400 events are conducted in the non-auditorium spaces, with seating arrangements catering for 5,544 visitors in accordance with health and safety regulations. Between 1998 and 2004, the hall underwent a period of transformation, resulting in the installation of a new porch. This meant removing the original south steps to allow workers to carry out excavation work to accommodate plant rooms, dressing rooms, and an underground loading bay for the venue. Another highlight in recent years has been ‘The Royal Albert Hall Stars’, acknowledging the significant contributions of 11 public figures and key institutions who all played a significant role in the hall’s success from its opening in 1871 through to the present day. Emmeline Pankhurst, Albert Einstein and Eric Clapton received an engraved stone at the inauguration ceremony in September 2018.

Art, life and vision
Since the first wave of the Covid pandemic in March 2020, the Royal Albert Hall has remained closed to the public – the second time in the hall’s history since the Second World War. The hall has adapted to the ongoing pandemic with Royal Albert Home, a service that streams exclusive sessions from artists’ homes directly to those of their audience. ‘The Great Excavation’ is currently being carried out to extend the south-west quadrant of the hall, which involves construction workers removing 5,000m³ of earth from the site to create a new state-of-the-art two-storey underground space for artists, crew and promoters to store equipment. Special birthday celebrations officially commence on 29 March 2021 – 150 years to the day since the hall’s grand opening, with the programme of festivities set to continue through to 2022. Musician Nitan Sawhney serves as the curator of a week-long festival entitled ‘Journeys – 150 years of immigration’, which will include a specially commissioned oratorio for strings and choir, while the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will perform a series of concerts to coincide with the 150 anniversary and their own 75th (see www.royalalberthall.com/about-the-hall/royal-albert-hall-150/).