26th Aug London The Proms & The V&A

When we first heard that Tchaikovskys 4th symphony was being played we made an immediate decision to book for this Prom, initially as a quick trip down just for the Prom travelling by train on the Saturday morning and returning on the Sunday. Its one of our favourite symphonies, there's something angry and melodic about the way he's expressing his themes or fates. It makes them both thoughtful, sad and uplifting all at the same time, with plenty of room left over for joy.

Of course booking a train in the U.K. also involves fate but hardly ever joy. It was impossible to book seats on any train on the Saturday morning because.."we're expecting them to be busy on the Saturday so we are not allowing reservations on the Saturday at all in any class"... Does this logic make sense to anyone!! I had already booked a room out of the Proms guide at Imperial College, next door to the Albert Hall and as you can see from above and below next door is correct. The view is from our window. A quick call and I arranged to stay the Friday night as well and reserved seats for the Friday night train.
We arrived on time and after a short tube journey from Euston we were soon in bed looking out at a wonderfully illuminated Albert Hall. The rooms were very comfortable and location wise well if you got any closer you would have been sleeping on the steps of the South Porch booking office.
The following morning we took a couple of photo oppurtunities after a good hearty breakfast in the senior common room. The memorial at the South of the Albert Hall is from the Great Exhibition and though everything looks like its been here forever, the whole area is actually relatively newly developed or rebuilt so that new underground access roads could be built for goods and services to gain access to the RAH.

Below Jackie points out our rooms..