Alexandra Palace celebrates 150 years

Miriam Balanescu speaks to chief executive Emma Dagnes to reflect on its history

Alexandra Palace is a quite literally unmissable part of life in Haringey – whether sighted on your overground commute to work, or a place where you go to walk the dog, or ice-skate in winter – and yet we rarely reflect on its history.

Since it was built in 1873 by architects John Johnson and Alfred Meeson, named after the new Princess of Wales, Alexandra of Denmark, the immense building has survived a turbulent chain of events – not least burning to the ground only 16 days after opening. (Then again in 1980.)

The venue was originally intended to be a centre for relaxation, a sanctuary slightly away from the city and a rival to South London’s Crystal Palace. “It was built by the Victorians as ‘The People’s Palace’, when really leisure and recreation was something very new,” explained chief executive Emma Dagnes. “For the Victorians, it wasn’t something that had gone before with previous generations, this idea of promenading through parks or coming to watch Pompeii be set on fire every night on the boating lake at the palace.

“It was a real place of wonder and excitement, not knowing what you were going to find going around any corner.”

This month, Ally Pally will celebrate 150 years in the only way to fit such an occasion: by hosting a free day-long party
and throwing open its doors to the public, “giv[ing] everybody the opportunity to explore the park and palace and even go
into areas which are normally not accessible,” said Emma.

Throughout the past century and a half, Ally Pally has remained open to those on its doorstep, though not always in the same form. During the First World War, the palace was used to shelter Belgian and Dutch refugees, then as an internment
camp for ‘enemy aliens’. In the Second World War, troops from Dunkirk used its grounds as a ‘staging area’, while, in the Cold War, a Royal Observer Corps bunker was stationed in the park, only deactivated in 1990.

“Alexandra Palace always serves its community in a moment of crisis, and particularly with the pandemic, we were the largest North London food distribution centre,” said Emma. “Compassion London were cooking up to 3,000 meals for the most vulnerable in our community a day.”

Its history is certainly not all hinged on moments of catastrophe, however. The BBC founded their first ever television studios in its dining rooms in 1937. “They specifically chose Alexandra Palace because they needed the height for the mast,” said Emma. “They converted what had been former Victorian tea rooms into Studio A and Studio B, which was a procurement race between two organizations.”

The Baird Company and Marconi-EMI each made their bid for their technology to be used in the first ever broadcast. “They were in this arms race of technology,” urged Emma. “Everything that has come since is based on what was achieved at Alexandra Palace.”

Of its spaces which can hold up to 7,500 people, some have been given a new lease of life. Its theatre, for example, was
closed to the public for 90 years, only renovated in 2012 with funding from the National Lottery. “We had a £27million
project to bring this extraordinary space that has so much history and narrative woven into its walls back to life,” said
Emma, explaining that their aim was merely to bring the space back into use.

“As part of the refurbishment, we wanted people to feel that wonder that we had felt when we were first able to walk into the space.”

Emma added: “You learn something new at Ally Pally pretty much every single day. Even though I know this building incredibly well, there are still times when I go on tour and I just happen to turn left rather than right and find a room that I haven’t necessarily been in before.”

An important part of that history is also the individuals who have shaped the venue, with Emma’s favourite the writer and parachutist Dolly Shepherd: “She used to throw herself out of hot air balloons as a part of entertainment.”

Today, Ally Pally still plays an important part in the lives of locals. “My husband’s grandmother was actually born in Tottenham, and she didn’t move out of the borough until she was 99,” recalled Emma. “She used to say to me that Ally Pally is like a grandparent that sits on the hill watching generations go by, and I thought that’s a really great way of describing it.”

Ally Pally’s 150th Birthday Party is on Saturday, 27th May at 12pm.

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