The National Hall
After World War I, the Motor Show’s pressing need for more space was met by the decision to demolish the four most easterly houses in West Kensington Gardens together with the remaining Vineyard Nursery buildings fronting Addison Road, to make way for another Hall.
James Carmichael of Wandsworth was contracted on the 23 April 1922 to build ‘New Hall’ for £494,000. It is a smaller and lower version of the main hall but it increased Olympia’s exhibition space by over 9,000 sq. metres to 28,000 sq. metres in all.
The completed hall was first let for a tobacco exhibition in May 1923. ‘The Worlds Greatest Dance Hall’ became a regular event at the New Hall with regular attendances approaching 4,000 at a time.
After a clear run of 17 years Olympia changed hands again in 1929. Olympia (1912) Ltd was bought for £1 million by Philip Ernest Hill, chairman of Covent Garden Properties Ltd. He formed Olympia Ltd, taking possession on 25 March.
Read more about this topic: Olympia (London)
Famous quotes containing the words national and/or hall:
“The religion of England is part of good-breeding. When you see on the continent the well-dressed Englishman come into his ambassador’s chapel and put his face for silent prayer into his smooth-brushed hat, you cannot help feeling how much national pride prays with him, and the religion of a gentleman.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Generation on generation, your neck rubbed the windowsill
of the stall, smoothing the wood as the sea smooths glass.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)