TIMELESS Launceston icon Albert Hall is full of secrets and surprises.
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Launceston City Council senior project officer Tom Jones said the "magnificent" building was built in 1891.
"I think when it was built it was about the sixth biggest public space in the world, now I think we rank about eleventh," Mr Jones said.
"It would have been a very significant building in its time."
The hall has hosted visits from the Queen and Lady Diana, and prime ministers including John Howard and Tony Abbott have walked its floors.
Situated on the edge of City Park on the corner of Cimitiere Street and Tamar Street, when built the hall was named The New Pavilion.
The transformative venue has acted as an expo space, infirmary, wedding and funeral venue, as well as hosting wrestling and mixed martial arts.
An impressive grand organ has decorated dummy pipes on the stage, while the working pipes are located behind, hidden from view.
Down a tiny ladder beneath the organ are its double bellows, covered in kangaroo skin.
When the organ's keys are struck, rich chords ricochet around the obscure room.
The organ originally arrived in Launceston at the Mechanics’ Institute in about 1865, and was transferred to what was then the New Pavilion in 1891.
Mr Jones said the organ possesses about one million parts.
"The organ is by far my favourite part of the building, and the little water engine," Mr Jones said.
"This building's built without any of the conventional materials we use in modern buildings, no concrete footings and no steel and yet there's not a crack in the building anywhere," he said.
Albert Hall complex event manager Sarah Bertels said guests were impressed with council's maintenance of the space.
Beyond the decadence of the hall, the Albert Hall complex is home to rooms with storied histories.
Up behind the hall's balcony is the John Duncan room, where a corner of the space is home to a unique tiny red bar decorated in bright old-school tiles.
Squeeze up a tiny ladder through a doorway and you'll find the old projector room, decorated in ornate patterns reminiscent of an era bygone.
Mr Jones said the hall's floor was a dance floor made of myrtle, but "when ballroom dancing lost its flavour" the carpet was donated in about 1983.
"It's important to the people of Launceston, almost every person from Launceston's got some great event that's happened here...it's such an integral part of the community over so many years, over three generations at least, it's an inherent part of the city," Mr Jones said.