Royal Albert Hall South-west Quadrant Kensington Gore SW2 7AP City of Westminster Archaeological Building Record September 2020 www.mola.org.uk © MOLA Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Road, London N1 7ED tel 0207 410 2200 email: [email protected] Museum of London Archaeology is a company limited by guarantee Registered in England and Wales Company registration number 07751831 Charity registration number 1143574 Registered office Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Road, London N1 7ED Historic Townscape Record © MOLA 2018 1 P:\WEST\1613\na\Field\SBR\Report\2020\Coversheet_ABR(1.0).docx Royal Albert Hall South-West Quadrant Kensington Gore London SW7 2AP Site Code ABL17 National Grid Reference 526573 179556 Planning reference no. 17/00010/ADFULL A Level 2-3 standing building survey Sign-off History: Issue No. Date: Prepared by: Checked/ Approved by: Reason for Issue: 1 24/11/2020 Anna Nicola Mike Smith First issue Head of Buildings (Project Manager) Archaeology and Paul McGarrity Project Officer © MOLA Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Road, London N1 7ED tel 0207 410 2200 Unit 2, Chineham Point, Crockford Lane, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG24 8NA, Tel: 01256 587320 Email [email protected] Summary This report presents the findings of a building survey undertaken by MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) at the Royal Albert Hall, in the City of Westminster. The survey was commissioned by the Royal Albert Hall and was required to satisfy a condition of planning consent (planning reference no. 15/06079/FULL) prior to the construction of a two-storey basement beneath the south-west quadrant and associated external manifestations. The survey took place between January and July 2017, with a post soft-strip follow up visit to the Boiler House in February 2020. At the time of the site visit the building was in use as a music hall, and its public use was uninterrupted by the works. The site was bounded to the north by Kensington Gore and Kensington Gardens, to the east by residential mansions, to the west by the Royal College of Art and t the south by Prince Consort Road and the Royal College of Music. Royal Albert Hall is Grade I Listed (List Entry No. 1217742) and was designed by Captain Fowke, and completed by Major-General H. Y. D Scott in 1867-71 in a red brick Italian Renaissance style. 2 Royal Albert Hall, Archaeological Building Record 2020 Contents Summary 2 Contents 3 Figures 4 1 Introduction 6 2 Historical background of the site 12 3 Analytical description 37 4 Acknowledgements 62 5 Bibliography 63 6 Oasis 65 7 Appendix 1: archive list 67 8 Appendix 2: Survey drawings 75 3 Royal Albert Hall, Archaeological Building Record 2020 Figures Fig 1 Site location 11 Fig 2: Rocque’s map of 1746 13 Fig 3:Grove House drawn by the wife of the owner in 1857 (perhaps by this date the Commissioners wife) (BHO, 2020) 14 Fig 4: Gore House, date unknown (BHO, 2020) 14 Fig 5: Greenwoods map of 1826 15 Fig 6: Stanford’s map of 1862 16 Fig 7: Marquee erected for the ceremony of laying the foundation stone at the Royal Albert Hall, 20th Mat 1867 by Queen Victoria (Royal Albert Hall, 2020) 19 Fig 8: Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore- arrival of the queen at the site of the hall prior to construction. Etching by Mason Jackson, reproduced in the 1867 Illustrated London News (LMA collage no. 312914) 19 Fig 9: Queen Victoria laying the foundation stone at the Royal Albert Hall, 20 May 1867 (Royal Albert Hall, 2020) 20 Fig 10: The roof of Royal Albert Hall under construction in 1869 (Royal Albert Hall, 2020) 21 Fig 11: “The Central Hall of Arts and Science to be erected at Kensington”, Etching by Mason Jackson reproduced in the 1867 Illustrated London News (LMA, Collage 312912) 21 Fig 12: The interior of the Central Hall of Arts and Science to be erected. An etching by Mason Jackson, reproduced in the London Illustrated News in 1867 (LMA Collage 312911) 21 Fig 13: The Royal Albert Hall under construction in 1868, photographed from the top of the Albert Memorial to the north (Royal Albert Hall archives) 22 Fig 14: Ordnance Survey 1st edition 5ft:mile map of 1872 (not to scale) 23 Fig 15: Plan of foundations showing the connection of the south porch to the conservatory to the south (on the left) (RAH/2/7/1/35) 24 Fig 16: Section through footings, c. 1868-9 (RAH/2/7/1/56) 24 Fig 17: Footings and basement plan through wing buildings and front of building c.1868-9 (RAH/2/7/1/55) 25 Fig 18: Ordnance Survey 2nd edition 5ft:mile map of 1893 (not to scale) 27 Fig 19: Basement plan of the Royal Albert Hall foundations, dated 1868-69 (RAH/2/7/1/45 27 Fig 20: Plan of the Ground floor showing urinals and steps from conservatory, c.1868-69 (RAH/2/7/1/52) 28 Fig 21: “Covering over boilers, west side” 1 March 1871 (RAH/2/7/1/52) 28 Fig 22: Plan showing heating arrangements for warming c.1897 (RAH/3/5/1/1) 29 Fig 23: The original heating core beneath the arena of the Royal Albert Hall, taken in 1967 30 Fig 24: Ordnance Survey 3rd Edition 25” map of 1915 31 Fig 25: The grade I listed chimney in 1972 (LMA 72/6/05988) 31 Fig 26: Drainage Plan of the Boiler House, dated approximately to 1917 (earlier plan with corrections, North is ↓) 32 Fig 27: Plan of the Boiler House, dated between 1917-1948 (North is ↓) 32 Fig 28: Basement plan of the Royal Albert Hall in 1915 (BHO, 2019) 34 Fig 29: Ground Floor plan of the Royal Albert Hall in 1915 (BHO, 2019) 34 Fig 30: Photograph of the basement in the Royal Albert Hall, 1967 (LMA 67/6/HB/5225) 35 Fig 31: The Boiler House photograph dated 1967 (LMA ref: 67/6/HB/05215)36 Fig 32: Staircase adjacent to door 9, between ground floor and first floor landing. Looking north east 38 4 Royal Albert Hall, Archaeological Building Record 2020 Fig 33: Detail of the balustrades of the staircase adjacent to door 9, looking north 39 Fig 34: View underneath the staircase near door 9, showing the cloak room structure prior to removal. Looking south east 39 Fig 35: The door to the utility cupboard within the storeroom, basement level 1, looking south west. 40 Fig 36: Hinged flap at the bottom of the utility cupboard door. Looking north west 41 Fig 37: Detail of original skirting including a timber buffer, set into a recess in the wall of the store. 41 Fig 38: Change in coving, original to the right of the image. Looking north 42 Fig 39: Top light of doorframe within the Technical store. The top light has been removed and replaced with a heating duct. Looking south 42 Fig 40: Internal structure of partition wall and ceiling in the technical storeroom. 43 Fig 41 Brick partition truncated by a modern heating duct. Looking south west 43 Fig 42 Timber doorframe and partition in technical storeroom, looking south44 Fig 43: Step foundation cut back and exposing red and purple stocks. Looking south west 44 Fig 44: Modern spiral staircase and brick column. Looking north west 45 Fig 45: Top of the brick column within the stairwell with truncated concrete surface on top. Looking north west 46 Fig 46: Blocked archway, possibly associated with drainage. Looking south east 46 Fig 47: Boiler House prior to a soft strip, looking west 47 Fig 48: The Boiler House looking south west 48 Fig 49: The Boiler House, looking north 48 Fig 50: Southeast corner of the Boiler House, looking west 49 Fig 51: North end of the east wall of the Boiler House, looking north east 50 Fig 52: Brick pier at the north end of the east wall of the Boiler House, looking east 50 Fig 53: Bays 1-4 (from right to left), south wall of the Boiler House, looking south 51 Fig 54: Fixtures for a portable ladder beneath the door of Bay 3, looking south 52 Fig 55: Bays 6 (left) and 5 in the Boiler House, looking south 52 Fig 56: North end of the west wall of the Boiler House, looking west 53 Fig 57: Cast iron chute and chimney at the north end of the west wall. Boiler House, looking west 54 Fig 58: Arch on the west wall, corresponding to the previous openings seen on historic mapping. Looking west 54 Fig 59: North wall of Boiler House, looking north 55 Fig 60: East end of the north wall, looking north 55 Fig 61: Fire escape hatch through the north wall. Looking north-north east 56 Fig 62: Jack arches within Blowdown room 57 Fig 63 Patches of repairs within Blowdown room 57 Fig 64 Blocked archway 58 Fig 65: Boiler House escape room 58 Fig 66: Brick corbel within Boiler House escape room 59 Fig 67: Southwest wall 59 Fig 68: makers mark on steel beam 60 Fig 69: Southeast wall 60 Fig 70: Stepped brick foundations, having been chipped back after the lowering of the floor level above 61 5 Royal Albert Hall, Archaeological Building Record 2020 1 Introduction 1.1 Site background 1.1.1 An archaeological building survey was carried out by MOLA at the Royal Albert Hall, South-West Quadrant, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP postcode (NGR: 526573/179556: (Fig 1)) between January and July 2017, with a post soft strip site visit undertaken in February 2020 in the Boiler House.