Queen's Hall
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The Queen's Hall was a classical music concert hall in Central London, England, opened in 1893, but is best known for being where the Promenade Concerts were founded by Robert Newman in 1895.
It was situated in Langham Place, and had a total of 17 entrances and exits on three streets (the other two being Riding House Street and Great Portland Street). It had seating for up to 3,000 within a floor area of 21,000 square feet (2,000 m²). It was considered to have a 'perfect acoustic' and was designed by Thomas Edward Knightley[1] employing a floorplan developed by C. J. Phipps. Internal alterations, completed in 1919, reduced the capacity to 2,400.
It closed in 1941 after the auditorium was gutted by fire after a single incendiary bomb hit the building during a massive air raid in which the chamber of the House of Commons and many other buildings were also destroyed.
In 1954-55, a report was commissioned, chaired by Lord Robbins, into the feasibility of a replacement, the 'New Queen's Hall', but which concluded: "On musical grounds it is desirable to replace the destroyed Queen's Hall by another large hall of good acoustic qualities, but it is doubtful if there is a potential demand which would enable it to run without subtracting from the audiences of subsidised halls already in existence."
Its former site is now the St George's Hotel.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Thomas Edward Knightley (1824 – 1905). was District Surveyor for Hammersmith for over 40 years and his practice was in Cannon Street, EC1. Knightley had previously designed the Birkbeck Bank premises (now demolished)
