Royal Albert Hall

Queen Victoria opened the Royal Albert Hall in 1871 as a memorial to Prince Albert, and it stands in South Kensington, on the edge of Hyde Park. Two Royal Engineers, Francis Fowke and Henry Scott, designed it as a vast elliptical amphitheatre, modelled on ancient Roman ones, under a glass dome, with room for more than 5,000 people. The dome gave it a notorious echo, which a canvas awning and later aluminium panels failed to cure. The fix came in 1969, when the fibreglass discs known as “mushrooms” were hung below the roof. Since 1941 it has been the home of the BBC Proms each summer. The London Symphony Orchestra is among the orchestras that appear there at the Proms.