London Shoes
  • Home
  • Recent Blogs
  • Categories
  • Archives
    • Archived Blogs
    • Monthly Archive
  • About Me
  • References
  • Reader’s Feedback
  • Contact Me
Menu

Alexandra Palace (known as the ‘Ally Pally’)

Posted on May 30, 2018 by Geoff Clements Posted in Historic Buildings, Parks & Public Squares .

    

My little trek out this week, took me to a place that I had actually visited a couple of times before, but many years ago, back in my youth. Since then it has gone through a number of considerable transformations, and is today one of London’s lesser known, but still remarkable landmark.

The interesting aspect about this location is not just its distinctive architectural prominence throughout the surrounding area, but also its vast and diverse history – and the fact that it is still around today, despite the many technological and social changes.
The subject matter for my London Shoes website this week is the iconic…..’Alexandra Palace’ – London N22 (commonly referred to as ‘Ally Pally’).

The 1st Palace

In 1862 the Alexandra Park Co. Ltd, bought up 250 acres of farmland for the purpose of constructing a ‘People’s Palace’ within a park environment – the design being heavily influenced by the popular ‘Crystal Palace’.

This ‘Peoples Palace’ was to be named after Princess Alexandra of Denmark who had married Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), earlier that year.

A Tudor style banqueting hall, was added to the site in 1864 and this was soon followed by the construction of the ‘Alexandra Park Racecourse’ horse racing track, which was opened in 1868, and nicknamed the ‘Frying Pan’ or the ‘Pan Handle’ because of its layout. This race-track was in fact London’s only racecourse from 1868 until its closure in 1970

The Palace itself finally opened fully to the public in 1873.

However, tragedy struck just 16 days after opening, when the Palace was completely destroyed by a massive fire.

The 2nd palace

Within two years a completely new building was constructed, occupying seven and a half acres, and featuring a ‘Great Hall’ with seating for 14,000 – a huge Willis Organ – a Palm Court, – a theatre seating 3,000 – a concert room seating 3,500 (which later became the roller skating rink), plus various mini-museums and a variety of banqueting suites and refreshment facilities.

The park was designed to include a trotting ring and a cycle racing track within the existing horse racing track – a cricket pitch – ornamental lake – a Japanese village – tennis courts, a permanent fun fair and an open air swimming pool.

More problems

However, as seems to be the case throughout the Palace’s history, there have always been problems in financing the continual operating costs of such a high site – and back in 1889, Alexandra Palace had to be closed down for a couple of years – at which time, some of the estate was sold off for general housing.

There was a fear that more of the land would be sold off, and so there was a massive local campaign to keep the parkland untouched and available to the general public. This campaign escalated to a high level and in 1900 the ‘Alexandra Palace & Park Act’ was passed – which passed the management of the estate over to respected Trustees – as a result, the Park was re-opened to the public again in 1901.

Historic events
*Huge firework displays started to be held at the Palace & Park from the late 1800’s – and remain to this day.

*The Victorians and Edwardians enjoyed watching hot-air balloon activities and parachute jumps that were regularly held at the Palace & Park.

*Throughout the First World War the Palace and its Park were closed and used as a prisoner of war camp to house German, Austrian and other internees.

*Large Boy Scout rallies involving thousands of young people were held at the Palace & Park in 1913, 1922 and 1930.

In the early 1930’s the Palace yet again, ran into serious financial difficulties.

In 1935, to help ease these financial problems, the east wing of the Palace was leased out to the BBC for use as the production and transmission centre for their new BBC Television service, and the very first TV transmission was made on 2 Nov 1936 from the massive aerial, designed by the Marconi Company, and erected on the south-east tower. This historic event is acknowledged in the London Borough of Haringey’s coat-of-arms, which depicts transmission ‘rays’ within its design. The original studios ‘A’ and ‘B’ still survive in the south-east wing with their producers’ galleries – and are today used for exhibiting original historical television equipment.

Sadly, during WW2, both Palace and Park suffered bad bomb damage, but a restoration programme allowed the Palace to re-open again in 1957.

In 1966 ownership of the Palace and Park passed over to the Greater London Council.

Many of the top bands throughout the 60’s, 70’s & 80’s all played concerts at Ally Pally.

In 1974 a high-level GLC survey confirmed that a large majority of the London Borough of Haringey residents wanted to see the Palace and Park retained ‘for the public’ – but with improvements to its amenities.

In 1980 the Haringey Council took over trusteeship from the GLC.

Fire and rebuilding:

However, in July 1980, the Palace was again seriously damaged by fire, with the Great Hall, the banqueting suite and roller skating rink completely gutted and most of the west wing severely damaged.

Haringey Council undertook the responsibility for rebuilding of the Palace using the £42m insurance money.

In 1988 the yet again rebuilt Palace, was formally re-opened with a new Great Hall – a new West Hall – a Palm Court – a new Phoenix Bar – a massive new car park – improved lighting – new trees and shrubs for the park land – an ice-skating rink in place of the old roller rink.

Throughout recent decades the Park has put on events such as rock/pop concerts – beer festivals – cultural festivals, as well as sporting events such as cricket – football – tennis – golf – the annual Red Bull Soap Box Derby, and of course, the highly popular ‘Masters World Snooker Tournament’ and ‘World Darts Tournaments’.

With all its history, it is no surprise that Alexandra Palace is now a Grade II listed building – and long may it continue to be so.

The only disappointment of my visit to Ally Pally was that I couldn’t get access inside the Palace itself to take any photos, as there was a Tattoo Convention being held on the day – and obviously I wasn’t on the ‘guest list’. Being the owner of a ‘tat’ myself, I did try to blag my way inside, but security soon got wind of me, and kindly escorted me off the premises.

Also – it was a very cloudy day whilst I was there, and as a result my photos of the place were not as good as I would have wanted them to be, especially the wonderful scenic views of the ‘smoke’.

However, before trotting off back home, I popped into the ‘Starting Gate’ pub, directly opposite Alexandra Park Station – for the customary couple of ‘cheeky’ beers.

The ‘Starting Gate’ pub was built in 1875, and its name is true to the pub’s origins, as it is situated at what was the starting point of the former Alexandra Park Racecourse – and inside the pub are many references to the locations previous history.

All in all a visit to the Ally Pally and its surrounding park land, is a good old day out.

 

 

Alexandra Palace station – approx 15mins journey from central

 

 

An aerial view of the splendour that is Alexandra Palace

 

The architectural splendour of Alexandra Palace

 

Another view of the Ally Pally

More views of the magnificence of Alexandra Palace – and the historic ‘rose’ window

 

Me – alongside the main entrance to Alexandra Palace

 

Another view of Alexandra Palace

The famous statue situated above the main entrance to Alexandra Palace

 

The blue plaque on an exterior wall of Alexandra Palace – commemorating the fact that the very first BBC broadcast was transmitted from Alexandra Palace, back in 1936

 

The transition ariel located at the east wing of Alexandra Palace

 

Info boards on the exterior walls of Ally Pally – telling the story behind the very first BBC broadcasts from there.

 

More info boards – commemorating the fact that the BBC news was broadcast from Alexandra Palace – from 1964 to 1969

 

More info boards – telling the broadcasting history

 

Me – outside the the entrance to the BBC studios that still operate from Alexandra Palace

 

More views of the Alexandra Palace historic transmission ariel.

 

Me – & the ariel

 

A view of the ariel from a distance

 

Scenes from around the perimeters of Ally Pally

A cool display alongside one of the many pop-up bars located around the perimeter of Alexandra Palace

A plaque commemorating Alexandra Palace’s role as a POW camp throughout WW1

 

The popular Ice Rink inside Alexandra Palace – that was once a roller skating rink, back in the Victorian times

 

Me – outside the entrance to the Palm Court – at the west wing of the Palace

A scenic panoramic view of the ‘Smoke’ – from the entrance to Alexandra Palace

 

A poor quality photo I know – but a close-up of the London skyline from the steps of Alexandra Palace (you can just about make out the Shard on the far right)

 

Another panoramic view of London from Alexandra Palace

 

The ‘Starting Gate’ pub – built in 1875, and so named because it is situated at what was the starting point of the former Alexandra Park Racecourse

The ‘Starting Gate’ pub – literally across the road from Alexandra Palace Station

 

More Ally Pally memorabilia in the Starting Gate pub

 

Me – neckin’ down a ‘cheeky’ beer in the Starting Gate pub – nearby to Alexandra Palace

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related

1 Comment
« “Kenwood House” & “The Spaniards Inn” – Hampstead
*Brunel’s “SS Great Eastern” & the Millwall Ironworks Shipyard »

One Response

  1. Anita says
    August 26, 2018 at 10:42 am

    This is one of my favourite places. Lots of great childhood and teenage memories. Remember seeing the fire from my house in 1980. You should have gone boating there it’s great

    Reply

Leave a comment

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Walk with us on Social Media



Reader’s Feedback

"If some one wishes to be updated with unusual histories of London then they must pay a visit to this site and be up to date with it all the time"

- Leonida (Feb 18)

Read More...

Recent Posts

  • *The ‘Horse Hospital’-Bloomsbury-WC1 – London’s only surviving ‘double-decker inner city stable’
  • * the “Olympic Park” – Stratford-London E20
  • *all about the:- “Romford Greyhound Stadium”
  • *London’s “Lost Music Venues”-Part 6-the ‘Hinds Head’ – Chadwell Heath
  • *London Street Art-Pt3 – The “Bow Bells Pub-Mural”-Bow Rd-London E3

London Shoes ©2021

Privacy Policy
Site by So Friendly Web Design