C O N T E X T 1 1 6 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 0 27 IHBC Annual School 2010 IHBC Annual School 2009 IHBC Annual School 2010 out its own load-bearing tests on the dome structure. Modern loading demands for various entertainments have meant that the building has had to accommodate all sorts or events and spectacles flexibly. The tour focused on the need to provide these rigs and services. We started with an internal view down to the main auditorium from the six-metre-wide perimeter ring, looking at ballet dancers rehearse, before looking up to the vast roof of an otherwise empty Royal Albert Hall. It was quite a privilege. The view of the inside of the roof is slightly marred by controversial ‘mushrooms’ (large fibreglass disks), installed in the 1960s to aid the hall’s acoustics. A myriad of cables and chains, descending seemingly from nowhere, hold the mushrooms in place. A large amount of metal is required to hang lighting and occasionally acrobats (for performances by the Cirque de Soleil). This is surely a modern intervention at its most visible and practical level. One can overlook these high-level interventions, as the building’s main focus and view is, or course, of the stage. Above the auditorium it is possible to enter between the outer and inner sections of roof, to see the wire and chain hoist motors (approximately 200 of them) and have a trapeze artist’s view of the floor below. Dancers still rehearsing appeared as specks on the floor. This is engineering at its most honest. What else can you do, faced with a glass dome and arched roof when internal lighting is required?We were told that it is easiest to suspend rigging from the ceiling to allow for all the necessary accoutrements for the stage. This is exactly what has been done. Controversial? Maybe, but it is certainly practical and ultimately reversible. I don’t know if we believed Stagg when he said ‘if we didn’t do anything, the hall would just become a giant pigeon loft’. Pippa Card Eddie Booth and friends outside Royal Albert Hall (Photo: Dave Chetwyn) Acoustic mushrooms in the auditorium of the Royal Albert Hall (Photo: Fiona Newton)
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