Help us Make an Entrance

HELP US MAKE AN ENTRANCE

As work begins on the Entrance Hall and Foyer Hall this summer, Upbeat traces the significant history of the gateway to our South Kensington campus, and reveals how you can support this new chapter of RCM history.

In the 1850s Prince Albert bought a plot of land just south of Hyde Park, and he planned to fill it with museums and colleges dedicated to science and the arts. His vision for ‘Albertopolis’ – or South Kensington as it is better known today – had at its heart two objectives: access and excellence.

Now, some 160 years later, the More Music: Reimagining the Royal College of Music Campaign is further building upon these two ideals. Our redesigned entrance will both reflect Albert’s original Victorian vision and support the pursuit of our exciting plans for the future: widening public access to the arts while delivering excellence.

The Blomfield Building entrance is steeped in history that stretches back to the the late 1880s. The Royal College of Music (RCM), newly founded in 1882, was by the end of the decade beginning to outgrow its original home in Kensington Gore. In early 1887, the Exhibition Commissioners informally offered the College a site on the west side of Exhibition Road.

This might have been where the RCM sits today, had the project not gained the attention of Yorkshire industrialist Samson Fox.

Fox made two important donations to the building project totalling £45,000, singlehandedly providing for most of the cost of the new RCM. His generous contribution meant that the construction of a handsome piece of architecture was now possible, and the Exhibition Commissioners reconsidered their offer.

Ultimately, it was decided that a larger site on the newly created Prince Consort Road would be a more befitting home for the Royal College of Music, and in 1888 a Building Committee was formed to oversee the project.

Plans for the new campus were ambitious. A letter from the Committee to HRH The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) in early 1889 decreed that the new building ‘be of a character worthy of the site’. In March that year, HRH approved the appointment of architect Sir Arthur Blomfield to oversee this historic task.

RCM Outer Hall pictured in 1990

Oliver Davies

The Entrance Hall was one of the last sections to be completed. Blomfield, writing to the Committee on 8 June 1893, outlined some of the contractual provisions agreed for the space. The new RCM was to be divided into two halves with a separate entrance on each side of the general entrance for male and female pupils, as well as designated staircases and corridors.

Visitors would enter the main entrance through a set of grand doors, furnished from oak to set them apart from the rest of the RCM doors, which were almost all sourced from Baltic lumber. A sum of £4 and 15 shillings was paid for ‘the name of the College and the date of its foundation in bronze letters on the frieze over the front’.

The Entrance Hall was also to be distinguished by its elegant interior. Relatively little money was allocated to internal decoration in the rest of the building, but meeting minutes from December 1890 record that, having visited the new premises the previous month, Fox and Blomfield had decided upon marble fittings and an ornamental ceiling ‘at a cost not exceeding £1,000’.

Importantly, Fox’s considerable contribution to the College was to be immortalised in an intricate mosaic, designed by Diespeker & Co and placed in the Entrance Hall floor.

In the foyer, the contract called for ‘an inscription in bronze letters in a conspicuous place over the foundation stone recording the facts and dates of its laying’. This stone was laid on 8 July 1890 at a ceremony attended by HRH The Prince of Wales and Princess Maud, with music provided by Fox’s Leeds Forge brass band.

Almost four years later, the Blomfield Building was ready to open its doors. HRH The Prince of Wales officially opened the new building at noon on 2 May 1894.

Artist's impression of the redesigned Entrance Hall

BIGlolly

In the century that has followed, some of the most eminent musicians in modern history have crossed the RCM threshold -- Benjamin Britten, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Sarah Connolly, Gustav Holst, Joan Sutherland, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ralph Vaughan Williams, to name just a few.

From the youngest members of RCM Sparks, to established industry greats, the RCM Entrance Hall has welcomed thousands of musicians who have come to study, perform, research and compose in one of the world’s greatest conservatoires.

As we look forward to welcoming many more visitors, we’re asking for your help to make our entrance more robust to withstand the footfall of future generations. Our More Music: Make an Entrance Appeal will fund important building work taking place on the entrance and foyer over the summer, to be revealed at the beginning of the 2019/20 academic year.

Whilst maintaining the feel of the original entrance, the new space will be opened up to feel lighter and more spacious for those on their way to create, study, listen and perform.

Visitors will be greeted by an impressive porcelain-tiled foyer, housing both the new Box Office and Reception. The celebrated mosaic – which has borne the footsteps of thousands of students, alumni, professors and visitors – will be carefully preserved, so as to be admired for many more years to come.

The redesign of the Entrance Hall and Foyer Hall not only represents a watershed moment in our More Music Campaign; it also opens an exciting chapter in our 137-year history.

Our new development, with its 150-seat Performance Hall, interactive museum, collections and open courtyard, will reflect our ambitious plans for the future as we invite many more music-lovers through our doors to enjoy our yearly calendar of concerts and events. The redesigned entrance will play an important part in engaging our valued community of supporters, enriching the way visitors experience the RCM from the moment they arrive.

Our President and Patron of the More Music Campaign, HRH The Prince of Wales, commented on the significant role the new building will play in supporting this wider objective: ‘The Royal College of Music continues to pride itself on providing a uniquely enriching learning environment not only for its own students, but for the wider public as well. This project will raise the standard of its student and public facilities to match the excellence of its training, thereby safeguarding the succession of performers, teachers and specialists in community and outreach work.’

When our new Prince Consort Road entrance opens this year, it will create a lasting impression. The redesigned space will reflect the warmth and friendliness of the RCM while conveying our stature as a world-leading conservatoire and arts centre, both widening access and delivering excellence for many more years to come.

Every gift will help us to achieve our ambitious vision for the future of music. To find out more about our More Music: Make an Entrance Appeal please visit www.rcm.ac.uk/makeanentrance or contact the Development & Alumni Engagement team on +44 (0)20 7591 4353.