Our first stop was the Royal Albert Hall, where every half hour they give a one hour tour; this was an excellent tour, that covered the hall's history, workings, and major events - really very interesting, and well worth the time.
Royal Albert Hall, named in honour of Queen Victoria's husband, the Prince Consort Albert, is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941. It has a capacity (depending on configuration of the event) of up to 5,272 seats; standing areas and stage specifications can change this. The Hall is a registered charity held in trust for the nation and receives no public or central and local government funding.
Since its opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from several performance genres have appeared on its stage and it has become one of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings. Each year it hosts more than 350 events including classical concerts, rock and pop, ballet and opera, sports, award ceremonies, school and community events, charity performances and banquets.
The record for the most performances by a single performer is a toss-up between Eric Clapton (194) and Sir Cliff Richard (unknown number).
The museum was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert; the building itself is quite glorious in its own right. Once again, entry was free, and the staff were super-helpful; a nice way to spend a few hours inside while it continued to rain outside.
We had tickets to see a West End production today - a new musical "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" at the Savoy Theatre, a beautiful small, intimate theatre next to the Savoy Hotel on The Strand.
The theatre opened in 1881 and was built by on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, which became known as the Savoy Operas as a result. The theatre was the first theatre, and the first public building in the world, to be lit entirely by electricity .
The musical was wonderful with lots of humour and a great cast, including Robert Lindsay (the dentist / father from "My Family") and John Marquez (the policeman in Doc Martin). Once again, a great way to spend a wet and dreary London afternoon.
Once the theatre was finished, we headed to the relatively nearby church St Martin-in-the-Fields (although there aren't many fields left now); our aim was the crypt, which has been converted into a wonderful space, with a gallery, a café, and the London Brass Rubbing Centre - which was what we were after. We each selected a brass (a copy of an original) and with a bit of instruction set out to create a couple of brass rubbings; it turned out that we each selected a Celtic design (different ones) - I did mine as black on white, while Kim did gold on black. They came out quite well, so we may well have them framed. It was a bit of fun, and will give us a couple of nice, and very personal, souvenirs of our time in London.
Speaking of time in London, it was time to head back to the apartment, as by now it was past 7 o'clock; also speaking of time in London, ours is just about up, as tomorrow we head out to Marshfield near Bath to stay with our dear friends Jenny & Craig Leggo while we attend the Universal Medicine retreat at nearby Frome.
I won't be doing any blogs for the next few days, because I won't have time, but should be back on around the 14th of May - come back and check out the final leg of the trip as we head through more of the UK.