The Royal Albert Hall's archive has been saved from flooding and preserved in a £1m rescue operation.

The South Kensington venue's collection includes a trumpet from the opening ceremony 152 years ago and a programme designed by Pablo Picasso.

The archive spans the venue's history since its inception in the 1850s and consists of tens of thousands of items.

Chief executive James Ainscough said the collection brought "extraordinary events to life".

"This famous building has been a crucible of debate, a place of cultural and social transformation, and a prism through which to see a changing Britain," he said.

"No other venue on earth has played host to the Suffragettes, Albert Einstein and Muhammed Ali, as well as Ella Fitzgerald, The Beatles and Adele."

The archive had been stored in four different locations across the building, with the basement store repeatedly flooding and threatening to destroy some of the artefacts.

The collection is now housed in a fireproof climate-controlled studio in the building with a new reading room, and is open to historians, researchers and the public by appointment. 

It will allow the Royal Albert Hall's archivists to conduct tours of its contents for the first time.

You can read more in an article written by Jess Warren and published in the BBC web site at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-67099592