We then walked around the building to the front or North side. This is the location of Kensington Gardens in which can be found the Albert memorial. It was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband, Prince Albert, who died of typhoid in 1861, and was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic revival style.
The centrepiece of the Memorial is a seated figure of Prince Albert. Following restoration, this is now covered in gold leaf. For eighty years the statue had been covered in black paint. The restoration has also returned the cross to its correct position as it was put on sideways during an earlier restoration. Its certainly an imposing and gleaming monument looking down on the road and directly at the Albert Hall.
Jackie posed for a couple more picture infront of the main North porch, incidently the West Porch to the right in these two pictures has the Albert Halls best restaurant "The Elgar Room" on its top floor and we had booked ourselves in for a pre Prom dinner.

The Albert Hall was opened in 1871 by Queen Victoria. It has held the Proms every summer since the Queens Hall was bombed in 1941. Its reduced capacity due to H&S restrictions is now 7000.

The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical concerts held annually in Central London, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington. "Proms" is short for "promenade concerts". This term arose from the original practice of audience members promenading, or strolling, in some areas of the concert hall during the concert. "Promming" now refers to the use of the standing areas inside the hall (the arena and gallery).

With a full day already planned promenading around the vast exhibition rooms of The Victoria & Albert Museum. I was glad we had already bought good Stalls tickets as this popular symphony was generating long lines for the prommers at around four in the afternoon.