Controversy Over Albert Hall

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27384, 9 May 1950, Page 7

Controversy Over Albert Hall

The report that £70.000 is required immediately to make the Albert Hall (pictured above) safe, and that £400,000 will be needed eventually to put its finances on a sound basis, has led to controversy as to whether, what one newspaper disparagingly called “ this enormous brick and glass pudding basin ” is worth preserving. Sir Thomas Beecham, who has repeatedly condemned its acoustics, said: “Why was it built in the first place? It can be used for a hundred things but music is not one of them.” Another leading British conductor, Sir Malcolm Sargent, was less downright. He said: “Any concert hall is worth saving when the need for them is so great. Perhaps when we have the perfect hall we can think again.” Jack Solomons, the boxing promoter who has arranged a number of fights in the Albert Hall, said its loss would be a severe blow to British boxing.

George Bernard Shaw was also invited to express his views. He sent an intermediary to telephone to say: “Albert Hall is indisposed? So am I.” Albert Hall was one of the projects which grew out of the Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1865 £200.000 was raised by public subscription to erect the building and the trustees of the Great Exhibition gave the site-

now one of the most valuable in London—in return for a peppercorn rental of one shilling a year. No provision, however, was made for maintaining the building other than through annual payments of £2 and later £3 a year imposed by Act of Parliament upon the permanent seatholders. These permanent seats were allotted originally to people who contributed to the £200,000 fund with which the hall was erected, and their descendants or legatees have still the right to sell the seats or dispose of them in any way they think fit. except for ten performances each year when thev must occupy the seats themselves.

This arrangement means that 1297 of the 8000 seats in the hall are not at the disposal of the individuals or organisations leasing it. The trustees also face the fact that when the new national concert hall on the south bank of the Thames is completed it will inevitably deprive the Albert Hall of much of its revenue. Estimates of the Ministry of Works show that immediate expenditure of £74.000 is required to make the hall completely safe and to carry out the necessary repairs, refurnishing and reconstruction. In addition the trustees have an overdraft of £90,000. —NZPA Special Correspondent, May 8.