Royal Albert Hall

London, UKTo date: 5426 seats

A History of Co-operation

For 25 years, Audience Systems have been working with London’s Royal Albert Hall – quite possibly the UK’s best known and most prestigious concert venue.

In 1996, Audience Systems were appointed to remove the seating in the upper circle, increase the rake of the floor and install over 1500 new seats. The chairs’ striking design includes a high show wood back and unique fabrics and finishes. With a very tight timeframe, staff worked overnight to complete the project.

Three years later, Audience Systems were commissioned to design and install new seating for the stalls. The 1500 custom designed chairs are removable for certain events such as tennis and the last night of the proms. They also swivel to give the spectator a better view of the stage, self-righting once vacated.
 
Soon after in 2001, Audience Systems completed the refurbishment of the choir seating with 450 replacement chairs. The company also collaborated with specialist designer Jackie Brown to produce special swivelling chairs with tip-up arms and castors to allow ease of access for clientele with limited mobility.

Removable seating

A further phase saw Audience Systems replacing the traditional banqueting chairs used on the arena floor with Matrix seats. These offer the hall several advantages. The system consists of a “matrix” of bars placed on the floor into which groups of tip-up seats can be slotted. The system requires less handling than banqueting chairs, and with the tip-up seats provides wider seatways and better comfort.

In 2018-2020, Audience Systems replaced the seats in the VIP boxes and our subsidiary Audience Upholstery undertook the reupholstery of the box balustrades. 

Audience Systems’ Service and Spares team also work on an ongoing basis with the hall to provide refurbishment, reupholstery and parts.