The Royal Albert Hall's echo took nearly a century to tame
At the Royal Albert Hall's first concert in 1871 the echo was so strong that Londoners joked it was the one venue where a British composer heard his work twice. An awning, aluminium panels and finally fibreglass discs nicknamed flying saucers were tried before engineers properly fixed the sound in 1969.
The hall grew out of the Great Exhibition of 1851, which Prince Albert organised in Hyde Park. Its success prompted him to propose a cluster of permanent public institutions in South Kensington, later nicknamed Albertopolis, but he died in 1861 before much happened. Exhibition profits bought the site, and when Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone in 1867 she renamed what was to be the Central Hall of Arts and Sciences in his memory. The ornamental half of the tribute is the Albert Memorial across the road in Kensington Gardens.
Two Royal Engineers, Captain Francis Fowke and Henry Scott, designed it with ancient amphitheatres in mind, using red brick and terracotta. The wrought-iron and glass dome was first assembled in Manchester, dismantled and carted to London. When its temporary supports were removed, only volunteers stayed nearby in case of collapse; it sank just five-sixteenths of an inch. At the opening on 29 March 1871 the Queen was too moved to speak, and her only recorded remark was that the building reminded her of the British constitution.
Its history is full of odd episodes. The Wine Society was founded there in 1874 after a stash of cask wine turned up in the cellars. Richard Wagner conducted the first half of eight festival concerts in 1877, then watched from an armchair on stage. A drama school founded in its West Theatre in 1906 taught Laurence Olivier and Judi Dench. Einstein spoke there in 1933 on behalf of refugee academics, and in the Second World War German pilots are said to have used the distinctive dome as a navigation mark, which helped it escape with minor damage.
Gas jets that could all be lit within ten seconds gave way to full electric lighting in 1888, despite one letter to The Times calling it ghastly. The BBC Proms have filled the summer there since 1941, and a renovation from 1996 to 2004, backed by £20 million each from lottery and arts funds, added a new south porch and an underground loading bay. Today it seats 5,272.
Source: Royal Albert Hall
