26 MAY 1967, Page 4

A hundred years ago

From the 'Spectator,' 25 May 186r---The Queen on Monday laid the first stone of the Hall of Arts and Sciences, a splendid amphitheatre to be erected in South Kensingston, north of the Royal Horticul- tural Gardens. The structure is one of the Prince Consort's ideas, and is to be used for international congresses of art and science, great concerts, and so on. It will, we doubt not, in practice be an-aristo- cratic music-hall, and it is to be built out of the sale of boxes, 1,0001. being asked for each freehold. When finished it will be a very imposing structure, a cross between the Coliseum in Regent's Park and the Coliseum in Rome, will seat 6,000 people, and had it been erected in London would have been extremely useful.