Another Visit To Ally Pally
Before a sod was cut and a foundation stone laid, the park and its putative palace at Tottenham Wood were renamed in honour of Princess Alexandra of Denmark, who in March 1863 had married Albert Edward, Victoria’s eldest son and heir to the throne. Enormously popular, she was destined to become the longest serving Princess of Wales. In a curious instance of ironic circularity, the Palace of the People was renamed after a Princess of Wales while a later titleholder was to be dubbed the Princess of the People.
The Alexandra Palace was a roaring success, attracting thousands of visitors, many of whom travelled directly there on the Muswell Hill Railway’s newly constructed line. However, just sixteen days after the grand opening, tragedy struck; the Palace was burnt to the ground in a fire which cost the lives of three staff members and destroyed much of the interior, including a valuable collection of 4,700 pieces of historic and valuable English pottery and porcelain. Only the outer walls remained, which became an unanticipated visitor attraction with crowds flocking to the site to see them.
The concept proven, a new Palace was quickly built, opening its doors to the public on May 1, 1875. Designed by Meeson’s partner, John Johnson, and occupying seven and a half acres, it featured a Great Hall which seated 14,000, a Henry Willis organ, one of the largest in Europe at the time, a Palm Court, a 3,000-seater theatre modelled on Drury Lane, a concert hall seating 3,000, which later became a roller-skating rink, several museums, and various banqueting suites and refreshment facilities.
The park was redeveloped too, with a trotting rink and cycle track built within the racecourse’s perimeter. Amongst the park’s other attractions were a cricket ground, ornamental lakes, a Japanese village, tennis courts, a permanent fun fair, and, adjacent to the New River Reservoir, an open-air swimming pool.
As well as its permanent attractions, Alexandra Palace and its Park hosted temporary exhibitions and stage acts, some of which were epic, ground-breaking, or simply bizarre. In 1880 the lake was illuminated as the Palace’s choir performed as Singing Gondolas, an event so popular that the park was dangerously overcrowded, and extra performances had to be arranged, while in 1888, visitors were treated to the largest panorama picture in London, The Siege of Sevastopol, fresh from the Champs Elysée.
For fans of the outré, in 1888 Miss Alice Webb performed “underwater feats in a crystal tank”, which seemed to have consisted of eating, drinking, sewing, peeling an apple, smoking, and writing. For the more adventurous at heart a switchback railway was installed in 1895.
Alexandra Palace’s financial fortunes were always a rollercoaster ride, losses forcing it to close for two years in 1889, and part of the land to the north of the palace was sold for housing development. To guard against further encroachments, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1900 placing it in public ownership and from 1967 it was granted charitable status.
Ally Pally, as Gracie Fields who performed there regularly dubbed it, saw its fair share of technological innovation. In 1882 Cecil Shadbolt took the UK’s first aerial photograph over Alexandra Palace, curiously omitting, though, to take one of the Palace itself. It was from there that the BBC launched the world’s first full television service on November 2, 1936.
But disaster was never far away. The Willis organ was vandalised in 1918 and not restored and reopened until 1929, while on July 10, 1980 a major fire engulfed the Palace with only the outer walls and the eastern parts of the building surviving. Although the cost of the rebuild exceeded estimate and caused Haringey Council financial embarrassment, it has risen again phoenix-like from the ashes to celebrate its 150th anniversary.
Perhaps it has now laid to rest the spirit of Tottenham Wood.
