Outside Edge

No one is looking forward to tomorrow's Last Night of the Proms than Tony Alt, a managing director of N M Rothschild. Unlike most Prommers, he won't have to queue or engage in any of the other rituals by which Last Night seats are allocated. In common with 337 other seat-owners, he will have automatic access to a private box.

The private ownership of l,292 Royal Albert Hall seats - out of a total of 5,200 - has long been a mystery to the outside world and a source of irritation to promoters like the BBC.

It all began in 1871 when the RAH was built at a cost of pounds 200,000 (around pounds 15m in today's money). In return for a 999-year leasehold on stalls and boxes, private subscribers put up two-thirds of this amount. Effectively, they became the hall's shareholders, although, as Patrick Deuchar, the RAH chief executive, says, 'Shareholders receive dividends. Our seat-holders have to pay an annual rent.'

While seat-owners may not quite represent the 'cross-section of the UK - from the landed gentry to the man in the street' that Deuchar claims, ownership is certainly varied. Some inherited their leases - like Arthur Parsons, a retired City solicitor, whose great-grandfather, the Earl of Rosse, 'had his arm twisted by the Prince Consort' and bought a couple of five-seat boxes; or Margaret Yates, who unexpectedly inherited three stalls from a 94- year-old cousin, and has so far failed to buy a fourth.

Given the Albert Hall's varied programme - everything from Schoenberg to sumo wrestling, with rock concerts and the Festival of Remembrance thrown in - a private seat is clearly a desirable asset. There was much muttering among members when the RAH Council - which can declare 87 events a year as 'exclusive', or unavailable to seat-holders - granted the Bolshoi Ballet 40 'exclusions' out of 43 performances. But, as Deuchar told them, 'It's either that or no Bolshoi.'

As the man credited with having turned the hall's fortunes round - after years in the red, it is now showing an annual surplus of pounds 1m - Deuchar has vastly increased the value of the private seats. In 1971, Rothschild's five-seat box could be had for just over pounds 1,000; now it's worth nearer pounds 100,000. A pair of stalls - sold in 1871 for pounds 100 each - have just fetched pounds 25,000. But sales are infrequent: your best bet is to join the waiting list, in the hope that someone (probably an executor) will want to unload his piece of Kensington real estate.