Royal Albert Hall

Albert died in 1861 and Victoria opened the hall in his memory in 1871, so overcome at the ceremony that she could not speak. The building is an oval of red brick and terracotta with a mosaic frieze running round it, seating around five thousand two hundred. Its acoustics were bad from the start: the dome produced an echo, and the joke ran that it was the only place a British composer could be sure of hearing his work twice. Fibreglass diffusing discs, the mushrooms, were hung from the ceiling in 1969 and largely solved it. The BBC Proms have been held here since 1941, eight weeks of concerts with cheap standing places in the arena and gallery, ending in the Last Night.

What you actually see

• The oval auditorium - five thousand seats under a glazed dome.
• The acoustic mushrooms - fibreglass discs hung in 1969 to kill the echo.
• The terracotta frieze - a mosaic band running around the exterior.
• The Proms arena - standing places sold cheaply on the day through the season.

When to go

July to September for the Proms, when standing tickets in the arena are sold on the day at low cost; the hall programmes concerts, boxing and tennis year-round. Tours run daily when no rehearsal is on.

Honest expectations

Many seats have restricted views because of the boxes and the shape. The Last Night of the Proms is balloted and effectively impossible to get without prior attendance. Tours are cancelled at short notice for rehearsals and events.

Nearby

The Albert Memorial faces it across the road; the Science Museum and V&A are minutes south.