Happy Birthday Dear Albert!

Happy Birthday Dear Albert! Today 140 years ago in 1871 on the 29th March the Royal Albert Hall was opened by Queen Victoria, with the intention of hosting arts-and-sciences exhibitions, and its beautiful architecture has since led to it receiving the honour of being a Grade I listed building, a fitting tribute to one of London’s most iconic landmarks. It was so named after Victoria’s beloved ex-husband, Prince Albert.


A golden Prince Albert sitting in his memorial looking at the Royal Albert Hall

Located on the border between the City of Westminster and Kensington, the Royal Albert Hall is one of the world’s most illustrious concert venues, making the RAH one of the essential London attractions with music fans of all genres. The Royal Albert Hall is probably most famous for hosting The Proms each summer (which culminates in the famous televised ‘Last Night’) but also hosts a wide variety of other events, ranging from rock concerts by 1960s counter-culture legends likes of Crosby, Stills & Nash through to The Masters Tennis.



For Londoner’s and visitors it has since become a well loved venue nor more so than at the annual “Proms” or Promenade Concerts to give them the full title. Designed to make classical music accessible to all so called because they are a series of Classical Music Concerts where Promenaders, people who walk in, can get unreserved tickets on the night. The other unique feature of The Proms is the promenaders stand in the floor of the hall and their enthusiasm and eccentricity lends a very definite flavour to the proceedings.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/proms-in-park-2007.html


But back to Albert’s Birthday, in the spirit of Victorian exhibitionism engendered by the Great Exhibition the story of its birth is told for all to see on the outside of the building. Surmounting the exterior walls and above the ballustraded smoking gallery, runs a continuous 800 foot long terracotta frieze composed of allegorical groups of figures engaged in a range of artistic endeavours, crafts, scientific and other cultural pursuits. Above the frieze in one foot high terracotta runs the following text which neatly encompasses the evangelical fervour of Victorian England:

“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 20th day of May MDCCCLXVII and was opened by Her Majesty the 29th day 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.”


The Frieze

A great Central Hall, dedicated to the promotion of Art and Science, was a key part of Prince Albert’s vision for the South Kensington estate, which was to be developed on land purchased with the profits of the Great Exhibition of 1851. From the outset the Hall was intended to be a versatile building used not only concerts but for exhibitions of art and of manufactured goods, and for scientific conferences and demonstrations. Its purpose was to enable the population at large to engage with the work of the surrounding museums and educational institutions.


The Crystal Palace, home of the Great Exhibition in 1851 held in Hyde Park in front of the site of the Albert Hall and Albert Memorial

This area was dubbed by the Victorian press as Albertropolis' a name coined in the 1850s and resurrected in recent years for the 87-acre site south of Hyde Park, purchased by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 with profits from the Great Exhibition. Exhibition Road - whose route the subway from South Kensington Underground Station follows - forms the spine of “Albertropolis”. The nickname satirised the vision of Prince Albert, the Commission's President, of the area as a centre for education, science and art - an ambition largely realised within a few decades of the Prince's death. There was a great deal of historical revisionism for the truth is Prince Albert was not actually popular during his lifetime. Government and The Court saw him as arrogant, self serving and pushy and the public saw him as German. He was also something of a conspious consumer, building (and largely designing) extravagant homes at Osborne, Isle of Wight and Balmoral, Scotland whilst ensuring the Royal Family enjoyed tax free status. The Cult of Great Albert came about due to a combination of national guilt after his death and Disraeli’s efforts to flatter Victoria and coax the “Widow of Windsor” back to her duties. Few of us today could take a 25 year paid leave of absence to cope with bereavement!


Albert Hall - acoustic "mushrooms" on the ceiling

Plans for the Hall fell into abeyance with Albert’s premature death (1861) and the construction of what was to called the Royal Albert Hall in his memory was due to the determination of Henry Cole, one of Albert’s collaborators in the Great Exhibition and who was later to serve as the first director of the South Kensington museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum). The design and robust structure of the Hall were inspired by Coles’ visits to the ruined Roman Amphitheatres in the South of France and to his determination that the building should be placed in the hands of Royal Engineers as he distrusted architects. Detailed design of the building was started by Captain Francis Fowke and completed, following Fowke’s death, by another engineer Lieutenant Colonel (subsequently General) Henry Darracott Scott.





The original intention that the Hall should accommodate 30,000 was, for financial and practical reasons, reduced to approximately 7,000. Modern Today’s fire regulations have reduced that figure to around 5,500. Much of the money originally intended for the construction was diverted to the building of the Albert Memorial and work on the Great Hall was further delayed while Cole raised the necessary money by selling “permanent” seats in the Hall for £100 each.


The opening 29th March 1871

Today visitors can complete the Royal Albert Hall tour, giving them a behind-the-scenes view of this famous venue. Whilst waiting for the RAH to open visitor can enjoy the many delights of neighbouring Kensington Gardens (including its imperious Albert Memorial) or one of the three free glorious nearby museums: The Natural History Museum, Science Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

For more about Albertropolis and Kensington see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/great-circle-line-journey.html

The first Proms concert took place on 10 August 1895 and was the brainchild of the impresario Robert Newman, manager of the newly built Queen's Hall in London so this year is the 112th year of these highly democratic and entertaining concerts, over 100 in total in a two month season attracting some 275,000 in the audience and many more with television and radio broadcasts by the BBC of all the concerts. While Newman had previously organised symphony orchestra concerts at the hall, his aim was to reach a wider audience by offering more popular programmes, adopting a less formal promenade arrangement, and keeping ticket prices low.



To lead the event he approached a conductor whose name has become synonymous with the Proms, Henry Wood. Born in 1869, Henry Wood had undergone a thorough musical training and, from his teens, began to make a name for himself as an organist, accompanist, vocal coach and conductor of choirs, orchestras and amateur opera companies. It is Henry Wood’s inspiration which has defined the informality and eccentricity of the proceedings and lest we forget it his wooden bust decorated with a garland of honour presides over every Proms Concert in the Royal Albert Hall.



As for myself and Londoners the Albert Hall is more than a venue for it is a repository of memories. So much so that they unconsciously refer to “our Albert Hall.” Not too inaccurate either as it is still owned and controlled by the public trust set up with the proceeds of the Great Exhibition and the Crystal Palace. Any performance in the somewhat unique setting of the Albert Hall is imbued with a sense of occasion of this unique and atmospheric building. For me there are the memories of unique Prom concerts, Opera’s “in the round” such as Madame Butterfly where the stage was flooded for the grand finale not to mention some great concerts such as Eric Clapton and Van Morrison. But my favourite evening was a benefit in 1994 for the founder of the Cambridge Folk Festival which featured Tanita Tikaram and Loudon Wainwright among others. The last act was the Irish singer Christy Moore and this was the year Ireland under Jackie Charlton qualified for the World Cup but England didn’t. Christy came out on stage and announced how glad he was not to be in Ireland. He said everybody there was a nervous wreck and all anybody was talking about was football this, football that. England by contrast was far more relaxing, he opined, all he had to listen to were genteel conversations about Tennis at Wimbledon!



That is how most people in London will reference Albert and his Hall - Great nights, great performance, great musicians and great memories. After a discrete series of rolling refurbishments the Old Boy is looking good with facilities and access fit for the next 140 years. So well done Albert, you have seen off so many youthful upstarts in London since but nobody has your sense of place in the affections of the public, your presence and, dare I say it, your sense of majesty. If only the rest of us were looking so good and feeling so loved after 140 years! So all together now, Happy Birthday Dear Albert, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Albert Hall!



Renée Fleming, BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Jiří Bělohlávek.