Historedia
Episode 1 of 1

First Promenade Concert

When
10 August 1895
Where
Langham Place
Part of
First Promenade Concert at Queen's Hall opens the Proms

The inaugural indoor promenade concert at the Queen's Hall opened the series conducted by Henry Wood on 10 August 1895.

Robert Newman, who had experience running similar concerts, proposed a ten-week season. He engaged Henry Wood to conduct, offering low prices and an informal atmosphere. The concert opened with Wagner's Rienzi overture, establishing the foundation for the annual summer season known as The Proms.

Sources

  1. Henry Wood Wikipedia, revision of 2026-05-11
  2. BBC Proms Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-13

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.