Alexandra Palace

 Alexandra Palace

The people's Palace

The Hill where Alexandra Palace now stands was originally part of Tottenham wood Farm. Has the surrounding acres where sold off to be filled up with housing it left the top of the hill free. It was thought that it was a good idea to move the existing Alexandra Palace from Kensington to its new home over looking North London. It was re-erected on the top of the hill and opened for business in 1873. Only sixteen days after it opened a fire broke out and the whole building was totally destroyed. During those sixteen days of its opening the palace had attracted over hundred thousand visitors which showed that Ally Pally had the potential to be a major attraction in London.

This helped the owners to decide to rebuild the palace. Ally Pally was redesigned and rebuilt. It opened for business in May 1875. The palace was so popular that it had its own railway station severing it. The railway was part of the Northern Railway Company,s line and had its platform at the north side of the palace which is still there today, but sadly it is not in use. Alexandra Palace covers seven acres of land that had ornamental lakes, funfair and sport facilities on it. The main building had room for large exhibitions it also had a theater, a library, a museum and a lecture hall and could stage concerts and banquets.

Alexandra Palace also has a big place in television history because of one very popular entertainment. That entertainment was the birth of television or at leased the first television broadcast that was transmitted from there on 2^nd November 1936. The BBC had leased the east wing of the building earlier that year. There were two television studios on the second floor and the transmitter was built on the top of the east wing tower. The early days provided two different types of formats the Baird 240-line optical system and the Marconi-EMI 405-line system after only a year the Baird system was phrased out has the other system was far better. In the early days the transmissions could only reach a distance of 25 miles but this distance increased over the years has new transmitters were add around London. The Ally Pally transmitter kept on transmitting until the early 1950's when the new Crystal Palace high powered transmitter took over. At the same time the studio's closed and moved to there new location in Lime Grove. In the early sixty's Television Centre opened in Wood Lane and most of the productions were moved there. The news went on producing its programs from Ally Pally until the early seventy's. It was then moved to Television Center with all the other programs. Alexandra Palace was then used has a production facility for the program Open university and did so until 1980 when the BBC's lease ended and the studio's finally closed.

Also in 1980 HaringeyCouncil took over the daily running of the palace and its grounds. Unfortunately in the same year a huge fire broke out in the great hall and totally gutted the central part of the palace. It took another eight years of restoration work before the Palace could open again which it did in 1988.

I have been visiting Ally Pally from when I was a kid and I find it a wonderful place to visit for the whole family. There is a boating lake and the view from the top of the hill is excellent on a clear day. They have a fun fair there two to three times a year. The great hall is still used today for concerts and exhibitions truly grand but not has grand has the original great hall that had a semi circle steel glass roof before the big fire in 1980. A great place to go.

Kensal Green Cemetery

  Kensal Green Cemetery

Opened January 1833

KensalGreen Cemetery was the first commercial cemetery in London. There was a need for larger cemeteries at the time has the population in the cities have expanded and all the normal burial grounds were become full to the brim. In 1832 parliament passed a bill that set the way for new cemeteries to be build around London. These cemeteries would become the magnificence seven which Kensal Green was the first one of them to be built.

The General Cemetery Company was formed and had purchased the land at Kensal Green in 1831 in anticipation of the bill being passed. They then promoted a competition for someone to design the cemetery. There was 46 entrants to the competition and the winner was Mr Henry EdwardKendall (1776-1875). Kendall's wining design was in a Gothic style but it was a neo-classical Greek Revival Style that was build. It was the chairman of the General Cemetery Company who preferred the Greek Style, He ask the companies surveyor a Mr John Griffith to draw up new designs and it was his designs that were built and what you see today.

The cemetery is 54 acres in size and was originally divided up into an Anglican section 39 acres and Non-conformists section 15 acres. The small nonconformist section is oval in shape and has a neo-classicalchapel with catacombs and is at the eastern end of the cemetery. In the western part of the cemetery there is a very dominate Anglican chapel that is set upon a terrace. This chapel was built with catacombs beneath it. The chapel had a hydraulic lift for easy lowering of the coffins down below.

There are three separate catacombs at Kensal Green there were intended for lead-sealed coffins that were triple-shelled. The catacomb under the north terrace is now sealed forever and the catacomb under the nonconformist chapel was damage during the 2^ndworld war and is also close and sealed. The only one that is still in operation is the catacomb under the Anglican chapel which is in the center of the cemetery. The catacomb has space for 4000 deposits and has vaults for family groups. Burial within these catacombs were far more expensive than being buried up above in a plot. These catacombs became popular with the unmarried and childless couples who have no family plots else where. The catacombs were more expensive in the begin but that was just a one off payment that cover the whole funeral. Where as if you were buried up above after the funeral cost you would have to spend more cash on a monument or mausoleum that could be very expensive but this was the Victorian way.

The cemetery at Kensal Green is a very quiet place to have a walk around and grab your thoughts. It also has some very fine monuments to look at. I would recommend it to any tourist to go and have a look around and see what it has to offer. It also so has the effect of transporting you back to the Victorian times as if by magic you get a real sense of what the Victorians were about.