Old and new London : a narrative of its history, its people, and its places . organ and an orchestra rising upwardsin tiers of seats. Fronting this orchestra is theauditorium, of horse-shoe form, composed of arenaa level space; the amphitheatre, or, as it might be 114 OLD AND NEW LONDON. [South Kensington. better termed, the stalls, sloping upwards towardsthe boxes; three tiers of boxes; above them thebalcony; and lastly, above it, what is called thepicture-gallery. This gallery is not within theproper limits of the ellipse forming the interior, butis built over the staircases and corridors wh
Old and new London : a narrative of its history, its people, and its places . organ and an orchestra rising upwardsin tiers of seats. Fronting this orchestra is theauditorium, of horse-shoe form, composed of arenaa level space; the amphitheatre, or, as it might be 114 OLD AND NEW LONDON. [South Kensington. better termed, the stalls, sloping upwards towardsthe boxes; three tiers of boxes; above them thebalcony; and lastly, above it, what is called thepicture-gallery. This gallery is not within theproper limits of the ellipse forming the interior, butis built over the staircases and corridors which forman outer zone to the portions of the auditoriumbelow. It runs, therefore, round the whole of the ^loo; a loggia box, holding eight persons, ;^8oo •a box on the grand tier, with ten places, ;^i,ooo3and one with five places on the second tier, ^ the unit of ^^100 is taken as the cost perseat in each case. The subscription season israther a long one—999 years. One of the most striking features in the interioris the organ, which stands in the centre of the. THE HORTICULTURAL GARDENS AND EXHIBlTluN BUILDING. interior; and the thirty Italian arches, with theirscagliola pillars, through which the body of the hallis seen, are really its great ornament. The boxes and balcony project from the wall intothe ellipse, each tier extending three feet beyondthat above it. Such an arrangement enables theoccupants of each tier to see without much diffi-culty, and be seen by those above them. One ofthe most remarkable features of the hall, in fact, isthe perfect view of the interior, and of all withinit, which can be had from any point. The boxesand stalls were taken by subscription. One of thelatter, comprising the right to a revolving chair, likea music stool with arms^ in the amphitheatre, cost orchestra, supported by a framework of the lightestand simplest kind, itself its only ornament. It issaid to be the largest organ in the world, and wasconstructed by Mr. Henry Willis,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublisherlondoncassellpette
