London’s Royal Albert Hall

The restoration of Paul Robeson’s passport enabled him to travel to Europe and the Asian outposts of the Soviet Union. In summer 1958, he gave a sold-out concert at Royal Albert Hall—shown here in its contemporary version as viewed from Kensington Gardens, London—accompanied by Larry Brown at the piano. (The concert hall’s exterior has been fundamentally unchanged since its opening by Queen Victoria in 1871.) Robeson had first performed here to critical acclaim in 1929. Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Hollywood Bowl were among the prestigious venues graced by Robeson during his illustrious singing career—and there were the countless halls and parks where he sang to working class audiences following his turn to social activism in the 1930s.