Cadogan Hall is a 950-seat capacity

concert hall A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage (theatre), stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention ...

in Sloane Terrace in Chelsea in the

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (often known by its initialism as RBKC) is an Inner London, Inner London borough with Royal borough, royal status. It is the List of English districts by area, smallest borough in London and the secon ...

, London, England. The resident music ensemble at Cadogan Hall is the

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, England. The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable recording contracts and important engagemen ...

(RPO), the first London orchestra to have a permanent home. Cadogan Estates offered the RPO the use of the hall as its principal venue in late 2001. The RPO gave its first concert as the resident ensemble of Cadogan Hall in November 2004. Since 2005, Cadogan Hall has also served as the venue for

The Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

' chamber music concerts during Monday lunchtimes and Proms Saturday matinees; it is also one of the two main London venues of the Orpheus Sinfonia. Cadogan Hall has also been used as a recording venue. In February 2006, a recording of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

symphonies with

John Eliot Gardiner Sir John Eliot Gardiner (born 20 April 1943) is an English conductor, particularly known for his performances of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, especially the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage of 2000, performing Church cantata (Bach), Bach's church ...

and the

English Baroque Soloists The English Baroque Soloists is a chamber orchestra playing on authentic performance, period instruments, formed in 1978 by English Conducting, conductor John Eliot Gardiner, Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Its repertoire comprises music from the early B ...

was produced and made available immediately after the performances. In 2009, art rock band

Marillion Marillion are a British neo-prog band, formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1979. They emerged from the post-punk music scene in Britain and existed as a bridge between the styles of punk rock and classic progressive rock, becoming the mo ...

recorded a concert there which was released on the album '' Live from Cadogan'' in 2011.

Building

The building is a former

Church of Christ, Scientist The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts, by Mary Baker Eddy, author of '' Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,'' and founder of Christian Science. The church was founded "to commemorate the word and ...

church, completed in 1907 to designs in the Byzantine Revival style by architect Robert Fellowes Chisholm, who also designed the Napier Museum in Kerala, India. The stained glass is by the Danish sculptor and stained-glass artist Arild Rosenkrantz. The building was listed Grade II on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

in April 1969.

Organ

The church had a three-manual

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

built by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd in 1907 and installed in 1911. It was on a raised position on the platform. The organ was removed in 2004, and the pipes in 2006. The original intention had been to install the organ in a church in the Midlands, but instead, in 2009-10, it was installed in Christ the King Catholic Church in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

, Sweden. Walker's organ case remains in place in the concert hall.

Conversion to a concert hall

By 1996, the congregation had diminished dramatically and the building had fallen into disuse. Mohamed Fayed, then owner of

Harrods Harrods is a Listed building, Grade II listed luxury department store on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It was designed by C. W. Stephens for Charles Digby Harrod, and opened in 1905; it replaced the first store on the ground ...

, had acquired the property, but was unable to secure permission to convert the building to a palatial luxury house on account of its status as a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Cadogan Estates Ltd Cadogan Group Limited and its subsidiaries, including Cadogan Estates Limited, are British property investment and management companies that are owned by the Cadogan family, one of the richest families in the United Kingdom. They also hold the ...

(the property company owned by

Earl Cadogan Earl Cadogan is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Great Britain for the Cadogan family. The second creation, in 1800, was for Charles Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan, Charles Cadogan, 3rd Baron Cadogan. History Of Welsh origin ...

, whose ancestors have been the main landowners in Chelsea since the 18th century; the nearby

Cadogan Square Cadogan Square () is a residential square in Knightsbridge, London, that was named after Earl Cadogan. Whilst it is mainly a residential area, some of the properties are used for diplomatic and educational purposes (notably Sussex House School ...

and

Cadogan Place Cadogan Place is a street in Belgravia, London. It is named after Earl Cadogan and runs parallel to the lower half of Sloane Street. It gives its name to the extensive Cadogan Place Gardens, private communal gardens maintained for Cadogan re ...

are also named after them) purchased the building in 2000. It was refurbished in 2004 by Paul Davis and Partners Architects at a cost of £7.5 million. The changes included new lighting and sound systems and bespoke acoustic ceiling modules in the performance space.

References

External links

*
The Proms' page on Cadogan Hall

Tim Ashley, "Let's not forget about the Cadogan Hall Proms". ''The Guardian'' Music Blog, 19 July 2007
{{Coord, 51.4936, N, 0.1576, W, display=title 2004 establishments in England Byzantine Revival architecture in the United Kingdom Cadogan Estate Christian Science in England Churches completed in 1907 Concert halls in London Former Christian Science churches, societies and buildings Grade II listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Grade II listed churches in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Tourist attractions in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Building

Organ

Conversion to a concert hall

See also

References

External links