Bring a piece of the Royal Albert Hall to your home with this Close up of Queen Victoria laying the Hall's Foundation Stone poster.
On this day at the site of the Hall underneath the marquee, a huge platform had been erected and on each side was an enclosure, one for government ministers and the other for memebers of the Diplomatic Corps. The Queen walked to the platform and was handed gold and silver coins, and an inscription, which she placed in a glass vessel, which was then inserted into a cavity beneath the foundation stone.
The Queen spoke, indistinctly, slowly and under great emotional strain. It was at this event that she famously announced that the building was to be called the Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences, in memory of her beloved Bertie, deviating from its original name, The Central Hall of Arts and Sciences;
The foundation stone, a block of reddish Aberdeen granite, although barely visible, is still in place; sitting proudly underneath the back row of the K Stalls seating at Door 6.
