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Royal Albert Hall

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The Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences is an arts venue dedicated to Queen Victoria's husband and consort, Prince Albert. It is situated in the South Kensington area of London, England.

The hall was originally to have been called The Central Hall of Arts and Sciences, but the name was changed by Queen Victoria when laying the foundation stone. It forms the practical part of a national memorial to the Prince Consort - the decorative part is the Albert Memorial directly to the north in Kensington Gardens, now separated from the Hall by the heavy traffic along Kensington Gore. The hall also accommodates the largest pipe organ in the UK, and is the home of The Proms.

As the best known building within the cultural complex known as Albertopolis, the hall is commonly and erroneously thought to lie within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The hall is actually within the area of the City of Westminster. The site was part of the former Kensington Gore estate which was historically part of Knightsbridge.

Introduction

The opening ceremony on 29 March 1871.

Since its opening by Queen Victoria on March 29, 1871 the Royal Albert Hall has played host to a multitude of different events and legendary figures and has been affectionately titled 'The Nation's Village Hall'. As well as hosting the Proms every summer since they were bombed out of the Queen's Hall in 1941, the Hall has been used for classical and rock concerts, conferences, ballroom dancing, poetry recitals, education, ballet, opera and even a circus (Cirque du Soleil). It has hosted many sporting events, including boxing, wrestling (including the first Sumo wrestling tournament ever to be held outside Japan) and tennis. It also hosts the annual Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, held the day before Remembrance Sunday.

The Triumph of Arts and Sciences

The hall, a Grade I listed building,[1] is oval in shape, measuring 83 m (272 feet) by 72 m (238 feet) around the outside, and has a capacity of 8,000 people and has accommodated as many as 9,000 (although modern safety restrictions mean that the maximum permitted capacity is now 5,544 including standing in the Gallery). The great glass and wrought-iron dome roofing the hall is 41 m (135 feet) high.

Around the outside of the hall is a great mosaic frieze, depicting "The Triumph of Arts and Sciences", in reference to the hall's dedication. Proceeding anti-clockwise from the north side the sixteen subjects of the frieze are: (1) Various Countries of the World bringing in their Offerings to the Exhibition of 1851; (2) Music; (3) Sculpture; (4) Painting; (5) Princes, Art Patrons and Artists; (6) Workers in Stone; (7) Workers in Wood and Brick; (8) Architecture; (9) The Infancy of the Arts and Sciences; (10) Agriculture; (11) Horticulture and Land Surveying; (12) Astronomy and Navigation; (13) A Group of Philosophers, Sages and Students; (14) Engineering; (15) The Mechanical Powers; and (16) Pottery and Glassmaking.

Above the frieze is an inscription in one-foot high terracotta letters. This combines historical fact and Biblical quotations: "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. The site was purchased with the proceeds of the Great Exhibition of the year MDCCCLI. The first stone of the Hall was laid by Her Majesty Queen Victoria on the twentieth day of May MDCCCLXVII and it was opened by Her Majesty the Twenty Ninth of March in the year MDCCCLXXI. Thine O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. For all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine. The wise and their works are in the hand of God. Glory be to God on high and on earth peace."

History

The first ever performance at the Royal Albert Hall, 29 March 1871.

In 1851 the Great Exhibition was held in Hyde Park, London, for which the so-called Crystal Palace was built. The exhibition was a great success and led Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, to propose that a permanent series of facilities be built in the area 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. The proposal was approved and the site was purchased with some of the profits from the Exhibition. Once the remaining funds had been raised, in April 1867 Queen Victoria signed the Royal Charter of the The Corporation of the Hall of Arts and Sciences which was to operate the Hall and on 20 May, laid the foundation stone.

The Hall was designed by Captain Francis Fowke and Colonel H.Y. Darracott Scott of the Royal Engineers. They were heavily influenced by ancient amphitheatres, but had also been exposed to the ideas of Gottfried Semper while he was working at the South Kensington Museum. The recently-opened Cirque d'Hiver in Paris was seen in the contemporary press as the design to outdo. The Hall was constructed mainly of Fareham Red brick, with terra cotta block decoration made by Gibbs and Canning Ltd. of Tamworth. The dome (designed by Rowland Mason Ordish) on top was made of steel and glazed. There was a trial assembly made of the steel framework of the dome in Manchester, then it was taken apart again and transported down to London via horse and cart. When the time came for the supporting structure to be removed from the dome after re-assembly in situ, only volunteers remained on site in case the structure dropped. It did drop - but only by five-eighths of an inch! The Hall was scheduled to be completed by Christmas Day 1870 and the Queen visited a few days beforehand to inspect. She was reported as saying "It looks like the British Constitution".

Postcard of the Royal Albert Hall (circa 1903) with an inset of the Albert Memorial

The official opening ceremony of the Royal Albert Hall was on 29 March 1871. After a welcoming speech by Edward, the Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria was too overcome to speak, so the Prince had to announce that "The Queen declares this Hall is now open". A concert followed, when the Hall's acoustic problems became immediately apparent. These were not properly tackled until 1969 when a series of large fibreglass acoustic diffusing discs (commonly referred to as "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.

Initially lit by gas (when thousands of gas jets were lit by a special system within 10 seconds), full electric lighting was installed in 1897. During an earlier trial when a partial installation was made, one disgruntled patron wrote to The Times newspaper declaring it to be " a very ghastly and unpleasant innovation".

In 1936, the hall was the scene of a giant rally celebrating the British Empire, the occasion being the centenary of Joseph Chamberlain's birth.

The Hall has more recently undergone a rolling programme (1996 - 2004) of renovation and development to enable it to meet the demands of the next century of events and performances. Thirty "discrete projects" were undertaken by BDP without disrupting events [2]. Although the exterior of the building is largely unchanged, the south steps leading down to Prince Consort Road were demolished to allow reconstruction of the original underground vehicle access to take modern vehicles. The steps were then reconstructed around a new south porch on the same scale and in the same style as the three pre-existing porches.

The works included a major rebuilding of the great organ, originally built by "Father" Henry Willis, subsequently rebuilt by Harrison & Harrison and most recently rebuilt by Mander Organs; The rebuilding of the organ now again makes it the largest pipe organ in the British Isles with 9,999 pipes.

Now the hall is used as a live music venue--it has featured bands such as Led Zeppelin and the Beatles. Graduation ceremonies for students of London's prestigious Imperial College are also held in the hall.

Famous concerts

The BBC Promenade Concerts - founded by Sir Henry Wood- now the world's largest festival of Western classical music - have been held in the hall every summer since 1941(after the original venue, The Queen's Hall in Langham Place was destroyed by a bomb). The Last Night of the Proms is broadcast in several countries. The conductor of the concerts is Anthony Robertson.

The hall has also been used for concerts by a wide range of popular artistes:

Listed in chronological order with name of artist and date of concert…

Poster for Petula Clark's 1969 Albert Hall concert
File:Groove.JPG
Led Zeppelin performing live at the Royal Albert Hall in 1970
  • Led Zeppelin performed on 9 January 1970, footage of which was filmed for a planned documentary. Though no documentary was ever made due to the poor quality of the film, the material was re-mastered over thirty years later and virtually the entire show was released on the Led Zeppelin DVD
  • Joni Mitchell and James Taylor performed a concert on October 28, 1970 for Radio BBC containing a number of solo songs and duets with the two. This was around the time when Mitchell and Taylor are said to have been romantically linked. Bootleg copies of the concert still circulate today.
  • September 1976 - 6th Festival of Evangelical Choirs under the auspices of the London Emmanuel Choir. Triennial festival of Christian music, with massed choirs of 1000 voices plus 5000 in the congregation. Released on Pilgrim record label.
  • ABBA ended their 1977 European tour at the Hall with two sold-out concerts. Tickets for the concerts were available only by mail application and it was later revealed that the box-office received, astonishingly, 3.5 million requests for tickets. Reportedly, the concerts were partially filmed for ABBA: The Movie, but the footage was eventually not included in the final version of the film and to this day remains unreleased.
  • Dusty Springfield performed her last full-scale concert in Britain at Royal Albert Hall in 1979.
  • Siouxsie & the Banshees recorded double live album and video Nocturne at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 30 September and 1 October 1983, This was the first Banshees album on their own Wonderland label, Released in November 1983.
  • Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert featuring the "Dream Cast" in 1995.
  • Sarah Brightman: With special guests, Andrea Bocelli and Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1997
  • Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Royal Albert Hall Celebration - A tribute to Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber for his 50th birthday in 1998.
  • The Corrs at 1998's St. Patrick's Day
  • Ladysmith Black Mambazo on 22 April 1999, recorded live
  • The Who recorded a DVD in 2000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust in a concert featuring their greatest hits
  • Julian Lloyd Webber gives his 50th Birthday Concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in aid of the Prince's Trust on June 1st 2001.
  • The string quartet bond debuted their first album Born on 20 September 2001
  • 29 November 2002: The Concert for George (Harrison).
  • 1 April 2005: Siti Nurhaliza held a successful solo concert at the Royal Albert Hall. The "Asia's Celine Dion" was the first Asian pop singer to have a solo performance there.
  • 2, 3, 5 and 6 May 2005: Cream reunion concert.
  • The Cure Played a 3 hour concert, 1 April 2006.
  • Meat Loaf used the Royal Albert Hall to launch the third installment in the Bat Out of Hell series of albums, with a sold out concert, the only UK date of the year, on 16 October 2006.
  • Noel Gallagher 26 & 27th March 2007,played two sold out shows in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust.
A 1986 photo of the Albert Hall looking north and west. This shows the small South Porch replaced during the 2000 refurbishment.

A famous and widely bootlegged concert by Bob Dylan at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester on 17 May 1966 was mistakenly labeled the "Royal Albert Hall Concert." In 1998 Columbia Records released an official recording, The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert, that maintains the erroneous title, but does include details of the actual concert location. Dylan actually did close his European tour on 26 and 27 May and of that year; these were his last concerts before Dylan got into a motorcycle accident and became a recluse for a brief period of time.

Another concert that was mislabeled as being at the Royal Albert Hall was by Creedence Clearwater Revival. An album by CCR titled The Royal Albert Hall Concert was released in 1980. When it was discovered that the show on the album actually took place at the Oakland Coliseum, Fantasy Records retitled the album The Concert.

References

  1. ^ http://www.charitiesdirect.com/charity4/ch004234.htm
  2. ^ http://www.buildingdesignpartnership.co.uk/flash/index.asp#p_rah retrieved 14 March 2007

See also

51°30′03.40″N 00°10′38.77″W / 51.5009444°N 0.1774361°W / 51.5009444; -0.1774361

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