sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

The Royal Albert Hall, conceived by Prince Albert and finished after his death by Queen Victoria in 1871, is one of Great Britain's most famous landmarks. It has hosted performances by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Deep Purple, The Beetles and Rolling Stones, and even Albert Einstein (speaking at a charity event to help European refugees).

It can seat almost 5,300. When we toured last week our guide explained that to get it built Queen Victoria had to sell hundreds of seats for very large sums of money to wealthy British patrons - these seats being good for 990 years, and able to be sold and passed on to future generations.

The upper level - the Gallery - is considered by some to be the best ticket - cheap, and you have to stand, but the numbers are limited, so you can walk around and get a view from different angles (all of them high!).

The Royal Family, though, not only has a special box but has a special entrance, waiting area, and restrooms.

This was a fascinating tour - it would have been fascinating to see backstage, but that was not possible.

These photos were taken with the Canon G9X pocket camera. The inside shots were taken using this cameras "hand-held low-light" feature which takes four quick photos and merges them to reduce noise.

The Royal Albert Hall

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Preparing for Tonight's Program

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Inside the royal box.

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View from the Gallery level

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tainkc Loc: Kansas City

Isn't that amazing? Very nice set by the way. The whole history of that era in England is more than fascinating and sometimes mind boggling.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Nice photos, Steve--enjoyed seeing these.

jederick Loc: Northern Utah

Enjoyed the history intro and your photos, Steve...thanks for sharing!!

DebAnn Loc: Toronto

They don't build places like that anymore. I attended shows there years ago when I was living in England. Thanks for the shots and the memories.

photophile Loc: Lakewood, Ohio, USA

An interesting era and architecture.

SqBear Loc: Kansas, (South Central)

Wow! That is a "Royal" theater!
Curious, did they turn the spot light on just for your tour?
And do they fill the seats at each performance 5,300? Amazing!

Still what an gorgeous building!

And great shots of the inside and building too!
I envy your tour!
Thanks

PaulBrit Loc: Merlin, Southern Oregon

It’s a fantastic place, unique architecture and one of London’s ‘must see’ sites. A nice history summary and lovely photographs.

Cwilson341 Loc: Central Florida

These are excellent, Steve. The interior shots give a real feel for the grandeur and scale.

Doddy Loc: Barnard Castle-England

Nice ones sb.

SqBear Loc: Kansas, (South Central)

Thanks still amazing!!

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Very nice tour!

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

'Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall
I’d love to turn you on!'

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

They were setting up for an evening show, so the spotlights were on for that - making some nice photos possible. I would bet they often sell out - just the opportunity to see something there would be awesome, although I cannot imagine the lines (sorry - the "queue") for the underground after a sold-out performance.

Our guide explained that, like many such facilities, the floor has been turned into an ice-skating rink. In one performance of Madame Butterfly they put a stage in the center of the auditorium floor and surrounded it by a large koi pond!

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

I asked, of course. If you Google it, apparently there are several proposed explanations, and the Beatles never clarified what it meant.