Royal Albert Hall faces battle to survive
Even after lockdown ends, the historic venue fears financial ruin under unsustainable restrictions
SINCE Queen Victoria first opened its doors, the Royal Albert Hall has been a jewel in the British cultural crown.
But the historic home of the Proms now faces closure in a “tragedy for the nation” as Covid-19 rules will make it impossible to operate safely and still stay afloat.
The Royal Albert Hall will be unable to operate under impractical social distancing after lockdown has lifted, its chief executive, Craig Hassal, has revealed.
This jeopardises the future of the venue, and the cherished annual Proms concerts, which have been performed there since the Second World War. Mr Hassal said suggestions that the Proms
could be played to an empty hall and streamed online are impractical.
Ensuring that ticket holders remain two metres apart will require venues to drastically cut capacity while keeping bars and restaurants closed – a recipe for financial disaster, according to Mr Hassal.
“If Government says, ‘You can reopen but these are the guidelines’, we can’t reopen,” Mr Hassal told The Sunday Telegraph.
“A night when we are not performing to 85-90 per cent [capacity] is a night when we’re not making money. We need about 378 performances a year at about 85 per cent occupancy to deliver a regular year’s income to the Royal Albert Hall.”
The venue is in a “seriously desperate” situation and needs a swift return to normal capacity in order to stay afloat, Mr Hassal said.
Describing the prospect as an “absolute tragedy for the nation”, he said: “We may have to close. If we can’t make this work, we don’t have a secret stash of money. We’re digging into our reserves now. The biggest risk is that we would close down. You can’t imagine the Royal Albert Hall being forced to close. It’s unthinkable.”
Last month, the BBC insisted it will press ahead with this year’s Prom, due to begin on July 17, in some form. Suggested options include streaming concerts from an empty Royal Albert Hall.
But Mr Hassal said he believed that to be unworkable. He disclosed that Katherine Jenkins’ performance from the venue to mark VE Day entailed a five-day shoot and a large crew for less than an hour of entertainment.
Shows for May and June have been cancelled, including performances by Peter Frampton, Scouting for Girls and English National Ballet’s Swan Lake, plus popular orchestral performances
of the soundtracks from Titanic and
The Terminator.
Artists who have concerts scheduled for the coming months include Russell Watson, James Blunt, George Benson and Cliff Richard.
Mr Hassal said social distance modelling – working out how many people the venue can safely hold if they adhere to the two-metre rule – dropped the capacity of the 5,000-seater venue down to just 30 per cent.
This rules out charitable events like the Teenage Cancer Trust shows, and even the premiere of the latest James Bond film, No Time To Die.
Such low capacity would immediately put off any of the promoters the Royal Albert Hall works with, as the tickets sales would be a fraction of what is budgeted for.
There are also practicalities, including the need to do away with intervals as they would lead to audiences heading for doorways and narrow corridors at the same time. “We didn’t have a solution for how to manage the toilets, how you go to the loo,” Mr Hassal added.
The 150-year-old institution has no shareholders and does not get the regular government funding enjoyed by other cultural attractions.
Mr Hassal said: “We are on the brink of a massive problem for the cultural sector, and we haven’t really come to grips with that yet. We need clarity from the Government.”
A spokesman for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: “As soon as it is safe to do so, we will be encouraging everyone to visit the UK’s vibrant performing arts venues. The Government has announced unprecedented financial measures, and we encourage all eligible arts organisations to apply for the support available to them.”
Other cultural venues are weighing up options, too At the Royal Festival Hall, the two-metre rule would mean only 800 people could sit in the 2,700seat auditorium. Gillian Moore, director of music, told The Telegraph earlier this week: “Frankly, the economics of that are horrendous, but we’re seeing if we can make it work.”