BOXING IN ALBERT HALL

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 83, 8 April 1922, Page 12

BOXING IN ALBERT HALL

KENSINGTON ORGANISING A

PROTEST.

If Queen Victoria knew that the Royal Albert' Hall, which was opened by her 'with stately ceremony in 1871, all the members of the Royal family being present, is being used for professional boxing matches, she would probably turn in her grave. It is said (writes the London correspondent of Melbourne Ago) that the design of this great hall, which has been the scene of many high-class concerts, musical festivals, religious revivalist gatherings, and public meetings, was suggested by Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert. At any rate,' it t.-.k(is its name from him, and adjoining the hall is a bronze statue of tho Priilce, and across the road ill Kensington Gardens is the famous Prince Albert Memorial, erected on the site of the first great exhibition of 1851, in which ho was the prime mover. Tho reason why the Royal Albert Hall, like the, Coven't Gardon Opera House, has opened its floors to professional boxing matches and tho supporters of the noble art of self-defence is that tho public is willing to pay much more to see a fifrht than to listen to Handel's "Messiah," or even to a popular singer of world-wide fame such as Madame Melbn, who has given concerts ill the Albert Hall on several occasions. Who would pay £15 15s for the privilege of attending a. revivalist meeting at the Albert Hall, or in participating in a public protest organised by the Labour Party against the Government's policy in refusing to recognise tho Soviet Government of Russia? But hundreds of people paid £15 15s for a front seat at the fight ;it the Albert Hall be'tweqn Georges Carpentier, the French champion, and Georga Cook, the Australian. Tho cheapest seat in tho crowded hall (which has accommodation for 5800 people) on that occasion was £3 10s.

. The residents of the Royal Borough of Kensington, in which the Royal Albert Hall is situated, don't like the idea of this famous building, which has added distinction to a suburb enriched by a Royal Palace and several colleges and museums, being turned into a boxingsaloon. They are organising a protest 1 on tho matter to the Mayor of Kensington and the directors of the Albert Hall. Kensington as a residential suburb has a reputation to maintain as the home of tho upper middle class, where the intellectual life is oarnestly pursued. The worst aspect of staging boxing matches at the Albert Hall ( according to the residents of Kensington, is not the mixed gathering of past and present bruisers and their admirers inside the hall, intent on seeing blood spilt, but the rag and bobtail crowd collected from the least respectable quaiv tors of London, which remains outside the hall because it cannot afford to pay to go inside, but is consumed with anxiety regarding- the result of tho fight. The street barrow dealers, wife their stocks of peanuts, chestnut:), oranges, apples, and bananas, who in normal time 3 would not do sixpence worth of trade amdng the residents of the Rpyal borough, do excellent business among the riff-raff outsido the Albert Hall on a boxing night, and their hoarse cries, as they proclaim the nourishing qualities of their goods, disturb tho neighbourhood.