Royal Albert Hall

Kensington Gore, Kensington, London, SW7 2AP

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1217742
Date first listed:: 24-Feb-1958
List Entry Name:: Royal Albert Hall
Statutory Address:: Kensington Gore, Kensington, London, SW7 2AP

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Date:: 2007-08-27
Reference:: IOE01/16888/21
Rights:: © Mr Adam Watson. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1217742
Date first listed:: 24-Feb-1958
List Entry Name:: Royal Albert Hall
Statutory Address 1:: Kensington Gore, Kensington, London, SW7 2AP

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Kensington Gore, Kensington, London, SW7 2AP

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: City of Westminster (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ 26602 79585

Details

This list entry was subject to Minor Enhancement on 01/06/2018

TQ 2679 NE 85/10

CITY OF WESTMINSTER KENSINGTON GORE, SW7 Royal Albert Hall

24.2.58 . GV I Public hall of 1867-1871 designed by Captain Fowke; completed by Major-General H Y D Scott. Red brick and buff terracotta with a glazed domed roof. Designed in the Italian Renaissance style with an elliptical plan.

Five stages with two main tiers of windows, the lower square-headed, the upper round-headed, with decorative pilasters between and a mosaic frieze of figures above. Entrances are to the north, south, east and west, within projecting two-storey porches with elaborate moulded pilasters, balustrades and cornices. Good arcaded interior. Ceiling altered.

Historic note: In December 1905 Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman made his first speech as Prime Minister in the Hall. He was interrupted by Annie Kenney, Theresa Billington and Sylvia Pankhurst, all members of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), the militant suffrage organisation formed by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903. This was the WSPU’s first militant act in London and took place not long after Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst had become the first suffragettes to be imprisoned after a similar interruption of a meeting in Manchester. By 1908 the WSPU had grown in size and was able to fill the Hall for its own meetings. The Union used the Hall on several occasions, and it was there in October 1912 that Emmeline Pankhurst famously incited her followers ‘to rebellion’ urging them to be militant ‘each in your own way’, and the militancy they adopted included arson and criminal damage. As a result, by April 1913, the Hall’s trustees had banned the WSPU from holding future meetings there.

In March 1918 the Women’s Party (as the WSPU was now known) held a final meeting in the Hall to celebrate the passing of the Representation of the People Act the previous month.

This list entry was amended in 2018 as part of the centenary commemorations of the 1918 Representation of the People Act.

Listing NGR: TQ2660279585

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 412964
Legacy System:: LBS

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.