Exhibition: War on the Home Front at Ally Pally plus talk on zeppelins on 20th May

WAR ON THE HOME FRONT

To mark the centenary of the First World War, Alexandra Palace will launch their ‘War on the Home Front’ exhibition, this pop up temporary exhibition will allow visitors the rare chance to explore the history of Alexandra Palace’s role 100 years ago.

Between 1914 & 1918 Alexandra Palace was first home to thousands of Belgians fleeing the German invasion before becoming an internment camp for non- naturalised German, Austrian and Hungarian men who were considered a danger to the UK’s war effort.  The exhibition will uncover the personal stories and experiences of those imprisoned at the camp and the  dramatic change in local attitudes to how the Palace was being used.

This timed ticketed event will be open Thursday mornings, Friday afternoons and the first Saturday of every month.

Until Sept 2015

SPECIAL TALKS AND WORKSHOPS

“Flames Broke Out In The Sky”
London’s Zeppelin War – A View From the Palace

Wednesday 20th May 19:00 (Door opens 18:30)
Tickets are just £7

Ten months into the Great War and the feared onslaught on London by Germany’s much-vaunted fleet of airships – Zeppelins – had failed to materialise. There was sympathy for those caught up in air raids on East Anglia, Essex and the northeast, but these were far away and easy for Londoners to ignore. Then, shortly after 11.00pm on a quiet Monday night at the end of May 1915, all that changed. That night a Zeppelin raider appeared over north London – the war had finally come to the capital.

Further raids on London took place through 1915 and into 1916, all largely unopposed, but then, in early September 1916 came ‘Zepp Sunday’. In the early hours of the morning Londoners by the thousand were roused from their beds by a bombardment the likes of which they had never heard before, to witness a spectacular and shocking sight, one that marked the beginning of the end of the Zeppelin War.

Relying heavily on the personal stories of those caught up in this war on the Home Front, Ian Castle’s illustrated talk explores the events of 100 years ago,  when, for the very first time,  London civilians found themselves on the front line.