Today I was very privileged to join a tour of the Royal Festival Hall to see the progress being made with the restoration of the concert organ.
The original instrument was commissioned in 1950 and completed in 1954. It has 103 stops and 7,866 pipes, and is thus one of the largest organs in the UK (and probably the world). When the Royal Festival Hall (which was opened for the Festival of Britain in 1951) was refurbished in 2005, the organ was dismantled to make possible changes to the acoustic structure of the hall. The refurbishment of the organ started in 2011 and is due to be complete by 2014.
This organ was an early force in the re-introduction of the "original" music trend in concert halls (i.e. the concept that you play music from the 18th century on instruments that date from the 18th century). It combines pipes and stops from many European traditions that allowed the instrument to be used in playing repertoire as diverse as Bach and Elgar. End of the lesson. If you want to know more, go to
Very nice angles and lines to this shot! I've always wondered what do all those buttons do... I suppose you have to be quite a master to know your way around that instrument!
Great pic, these things look so complicated to play.