Tuesday Royal Albert Hall

This morning we caught a bus to the Royal Albert Hall and went on a tour. Again, the only way, other than going to a show,  you can get in.  Once again,  it was very interesting for lots of reasons - the history behind the financing  and design, the ingenious design of the roof which was quite revolutionary for the time and the sheer oppulance of the space. We walked in and smiled. I had no idea that apart from concerts they have tennis matches, fancy dinners, ice skating competitions, etc etc. The whole stage area and first 6 rows of seats were designed to be flexible, back 150 years ago.  We sat for a while in the box next to the royal box, then went up and got a completely different view from seats just below the top standing room gallery. We prefer the box. To finance the building, , Prince Albert's colaborator Henry Cole (who did the work) came up with the bright idea of selling seats to the as yet unbuilt building for a lease of 900 years.  Wifey, VR,  bought the first lot, then more were sold, enough to build the building.

After a coffee we went for a wander in Kensington Gardens. Back to our apartment for a late lunch . Noel's daughter came for a while then I wandered the back streets and shops of Chelsea for a few hours. I splurged on some fancy takeaway food for dinner, accompanied by a cheap bottle of red from Sainsburys over the road , from Spain.