The grand opening of the Royal Albert Hall, 29 March 1871
When the future Queen Victoria was born, on 24 May 1819, at Kensington Palace, she was to be named ‘Alexandrina’. Curiously, it wasn’t even the princess’s parents who chose the name, it was the heir to the throne, the Prince Regent. The name honoured the baby’s godfather, the Tsar of Russia, Alexander I. It was only at the last moment (during the christening) that the Prince Regent threw in another name, Victoria. She’d be Alexandrina Victoria but known to her family as ‘Drina’, and to history as ‘Victoria’.