Alexandra Palace

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Alexandra Palace from the south

Alexandra Palace was built in Muswell Hill, North London, England in 1873 as a public entertainment centre and North London counterpart of The Crystal Palace. The Great Hall and West Hall are used as an exhibition centre and conference centre operated by the trading arm of the charitable trust which owns the building and Park. There is also an ice skating rink. Since 1995 the Palace has been a Grade II listed building. It was designed to be "The People's Palace" and later nicknamed (allegedly by Gracie Fields^{[verification needed]}) "Ally Pally", and in 1936 became the headquarters of world's first regular public "high definition" television service, operated by the BBC. The original Studios A and B still survive in the south-east wing. The Alexandra Palace Transmitter is located on the site and still broadcasts television and radio signals. The original Victorian Theatre with its stage machinery also survives. The structure is currently on English Heritage's Buildings at Risk register. There is currently an application to upgrade the listing by Hornsey Historical Society which originally got the Palace Grade II listed (against the opposition of trustee Haringey council), and the BBC.

A panorama of London from Alexandra Palace

1 History
2 Famous events
3 See also
4 Access
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] History

Alexandra Palace on fire in 1873.

The rebuilt Palace in 1875.

The rose window on the south-east front

In December 1858 the architect Owen Jones, who had been involved with the Crystal Palace, exhibited drawings for a proposed 'Palace of the People' to be constructed in Muswell Hill. The Great Northern Palace company was established, but was unable to raise the finance for the project. However, the idea lived on and on 23 July 1863 Alexandra Park was opened to the public. It was named after Alexandra of Denmark who had married Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, four months earlier. In September 1865 construction of the palace commenced, but to a design different from Jones'. In 1871 work started on a railway line to connect the site to Highgate Station. Work on both the railway and the palace was completed in 1873 and, on 24 May, Alexandra Palace and Park was opened. Only sixteen days later the palace was destroyed by fire, killing three members of staff. Only the outer walls survived.

The palace was quickly rebuilt and reopened in 1875. It contained a concert hall, art galleries, a museum, a lecture hall, a library, a banqueting room and a theatre. An open-air swimming pool was constructed in the surrounding park; the pool is now long closed and no trace remains. The Grounds included a Horse Racecourse with grandstand, boating lake and a par 9 golf course. The Willis organ installed in 1875 is still working, but its restoration is continuing.

In 1900 the Palace and Park’s owners were threatening to sell it for development, but a consortium of local authorities led by Hornsey Urban District managed to raise enough money to purchase them in the nick of time. By the Alexandra Park and Palace (Public Purposes) Act, 1900, a charitable trust was set up; representatives of the purchasing local authorities became the trustees with the duty to keep both Palace and Park “available for the free use and recreation of the public for ever". Ironically, it is this very duty that the present trustee, Haringey council, is currently trying to overturn, protesters fear, by selling the whole Palace to a commercial developer, Firoka.

In 1935 the palace was partly occupied by the BBC, which used it as the production and transmission centre for their new BBC Television Service. The antenna was designed by Charles Samuel Franklin of the Marconi company. The world's first public broadcasts of high-definition television were made from this site in 1936. Two competing systems, Marconi-EMI's 405-line system and Baird's 240-line system, were installed, each with its own broadcast studio, and were transmitted on alternate weeks until the 405-line system was chosen in 1937. The palace continued as the BBC's main TV transmitting centre for London until 1956, interrupted only by World War II when the transmitter found an alternative use jamming German bombers' navigation systems (it is said that only 25% of London raids were effective because of these transmissions).^{[citation needed]} After that it continued to be used for news broadcasts until 1969, and for the Open University until the early 1980s. The antenna mast still stands, and is still used for local analogue television transmission, local commercial radio and DAB broadcasts. The main London television transmitter is at Crystal Palace in South London.

A second disastrous fire destroyed half the building in 1980, a couple of days after the Great British Beer Festival and during Capital Radio's Jazz Festival. Again, the outer walls survived and the eastern parts, including the Theatre and the BBC TV studios and aerial mast, were saved. Some of the damage was repaired immediately but the project got into severe financial problems and the future of parts of the site is (as of 2006) still unknown.

An ice rink was installed in 1990. Primarily intended for public skating, it has also housed ice hockey teams including Haringey Racers, Haringey Greyhounds and briefly London Racers.^[1]

The Theatre's stage machinery was used for the effects necessary in Victorian melodrama, then popular. It was leased in the twentieth century by Macqueen Pope, and then by Archie Pitt, then husband of Gracie Fields, who appeared in the theatre. Fields also drew an audience of five thousand people to the Hall for a charity event.

However after the BBC leased the eastern part of the Palace the theatre was only used for props storage space.

In June 2004 the first performances for about seventy years took place in the theatre, first in its foyer then on 2 July in the theatre itself. Although conditions are far from ideal the audience was able to see the potential of this very large space — originally seating 3000, it cannot currently be licensed for more than a couple of hundred. It is intended that the theatre will one day reopen but much costly restoration will be required first. The theatre will never again reach a seating capacity of 3000 (not least because one balcony was removed in the early part of the twentieth century as a fire precaution, when films started to be shown there) but it does seem likely that a capacity of more than 1000 may one day be achieved. A major season of the theatre company Complicite was planned for 2005 but the project, which would have included some repair and access work, was cancelled due to higher-than-anticipated costs.

[edit] Famous events

The Darkness performing at Alexandra Palace on 7th February 2006.

A plaque commemorating the birthplace of television.

On 28 April 1967, a benefit event took place at the palace. "The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream", organised by the "International Times", demonstrated the importance of the quickly developing UK Underground scene. Although "underground" venues such as the UFO Club were hosting counter-cultural bands, this was certainly the biggest indoor event at the time. Performers included Pink Floyd, The Pretty Things, Savoy Brown, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Soft Machine, The Move and Sam Gopal Dream (featuring Sam Gopal, Mick Hutchinson and Pete Sears). The exterior of the palace was also used as Victory Square in Michael Radford's 1984 film adaptation of George Orwell's novel 1984.

The Stone Roses played their first major gig in the south of England which became famous due to the fact that the band managed to sell the venue out before making major in-roads into the music press or making any national TV appearances.

The third annual European Social Forum (ESF) took place on 15–17 October 2004 in London, the main venue being Alexandra Palace.

On August 31th and September 1th 2005 Pixies held two long before sold out concerts ending their tour of Europe.

In October 2005 Kiss 100 FM celebrated its 20th anniversary with a club night featuring many famous past and present Kiss DJs performing.

Travis played here on 20th December 2003, the footage of which was used for their live DVD titled 'Travis - At The Palace'. Franz Ferdinand performed a 4-day residency at the venue in November/December 2005 (with support from Editors and The Rakes on the first two days, Roots Manuva and The Long Blondes on the third and The Cribs on the last.) The Darkness (supported by The Ark and Juliette and the Licks) performed two shows at Alexandra Palace on the 7th/8th February 2006, as did The Kaiser Chiefs (plus special guests Graham Coxon & Polysics) when they performed on 21st/22nd April 2006. Morrissey also played a date at Ally Pally on the 1st May 2006.

The very first Give It a Name music festival was held at Alexandra Palace on 2 May 2005.

Alexandra Palace plays an important part in the 2006 Doctor Who episode The Idiot's Lantern, set in 1953

In 2006 a dance music Rave promoted by Hardcore Heaven was held at Ally Pally ^[2] and the venue will host the PDC World Darts Championship from 2008 ^[3]

In November every year, a large fireworks display is held as part of London's Bonfire Night celebrations.