Qualla: Queen's Hall https://qualla.com/queen-s-hall en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/queen-s-hall-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Queen's Hall https://qualla.com/queen-s-hall Queen's Hall: Introduction https://qualla.com/queen-s-hall/ Photo credit Public domain. Knightley wanted the paint to be the colour of "the belly of a London mouse." To get it right, the architect kept a string of dead mice in the paint shop and matched the pigment to their actual fur. The Queen's Hall opened on 25 November 1893 with grey and terracotta walls, Venetian-red seating, a central fountain stocked with goldfish and waterlilies, and an audience capacity of 2,500. Bernard Shaw soon praised its acoustics as "a happy success." The conductor Thomas Beecham would later record that the fountain provided constant entertainment of its own: "Every three or four minutes some fascinating young female fell into the fountain and had to be rescued by a chivalrous swain. It must have happened thirty-five times every night."

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/queen-s-hall-wp/gcpv-queens-hall-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Queen's Hall: Built Like a Violin https://qualla.com/queen-s-hall/ Photo credit uploaded by Tim riley at en.wikipedia, Public domain. Knightley designed Queen's Hall using a floor plan previously prepared by C. J. Phipps. The auditorium covered 21,000 square feet and was deliberately built like a musical instrument: the walls were lined with wood fixed clear of the structure on thick battens, coarse canvas stre...

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Image: uploaded by Tim riley at en.wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/queen-s-hall-wp/gcpv-queens-hall-built-like-a-violin.mp3 0:06 2 full Queen's Hall: The First Proms https://qualla.com/queen-s-hall/ Photo credit Raymond Potter, Public domain. To fill the hall during the slow late-summer months, the manager Robert Newman planned a ten-week season of promenade concerts at low prices - one shilling for the standing promenade area, two for the balcony, three or five for the grand circle. To keep costs down, Newman hired a...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/queen-s-hall-wp/gcpv-queens-hall-the-first-proms.mp3 0:06 3 full Queen's Hall: Composers Conducting Themselves https://qualla.com/queen-s-hall/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. By the early twentieth century the Queen's Hall had become Britain's most important musical venue. Edvard Grieg and Camille Saint-Saens conducted their own works in the 1894-95 season. Composers who appeared at the hall in its first twenty years included Debussy, Elgar, Ravel, Sc...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/queen-s-hall-wp/gcpv-queens-hall-composers-conducting-themselves.mp3 0:06 4 full Queen's Hall: The Bombing Year https://qualla.com/queen-s-hall/ Photo credit Erich Salomon, Public domain. On the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, the BBC moved its musical department, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, to Bristol, and withdrew financial support for the Proms. Wood insisted that the 1940 season would go ahead anyway. The Royal Philharmonic Societ...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/queen-s-hall-wp/gcpv-queens-hall-the-bombing-year.mp3 0:06 5 full Queen's Hall: What Survived https://qualla.com/queen-s-hall/ Photo credit Philafrenzy, CC BY-SA 4.0. The same air raid destroyed the chamber of the House of Commons and seriously damaged the British Museum and Westminster Abbey. The London Philharmonic lost thousands of pounds' worth of instruments in the Queen's Hall fire. All that remained intact on the site was a bronze bust ...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/queen-s-hall-wp/gcpv-queens-hall-what-survived.mp3 0:06 6 full