Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Ally Pally's Victorian Theatre Reborn: See the Future
CGI image of Ally Pally's Victorian theatre after regeneration (Image by Farrells, used with the kind permission of Alexandra Palace)
Last week we heard the good news that the Alexandra Park Trust has been awarded nearly £900,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to begin revitalising the east wing of Alexandra Palace, including the TV studios, the Victorian Theatre and the eastern entrance.
Today, I 'm delighted to be abel to share this wonderful CGI image of what the theatre regenerated will look like. It will be wonderful when this work is complete to have a third theatre on our doorstep (The others are Park Theatre in Finsbury Park and the planned conversion of the Crouch End Music Palace).
I'm sure Clive Carter will share with us how far the present funding will take the work.
Congratulations to all involved in securing this funding.
Tags for Forum Posts: alexandra palace, ally pally, theatre
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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THANKS for posting this great pic, Hugh. The initial funding will allow detailed plans to be worked up, preparatory to a full bid next year. Beyond that point, the monies that could come to our charitable trust might be £16.7m from the Heritage Lottery Fund and a further £6m from the council.
Most of the current funding will go to 'consultants' but on this occasion - there have been many false starts in the past - I believe this will be money well spent.Most if not all of SAP and their supporters will be really pleased at this fantastic result.
Visitors will know that there is currently real work being performed on bricks and mortar at the moment.THIS EVENING: Anyone wanting to know more, is welcome to attend the joint meeting (in public) of the Statutory & Consultative Committees. Members of the public are warned that there could be a lot of happy people present. And smiling faces.
19:30 hrs, this evening, at Alexandra Palace (the Transmitter Hall, access from the main terrace, about 20 paces left/west of the entrance to the BBC Tower – above pic).
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Simply and unequivocally good news?
My posting and Clive's crossed. So this isn't simply "free money" with no strings attached. In the usual way the Council will be required to put in "match funding" of Haringey residents' money. In this case £6 million. Or does the word "might" suggest this figure is not yet certain? (In other words, higher.)
Will the Council's (i.e. Haringey residents') contribution be added to the debt the Palace Trust owes the Council (us, Haringey residents)? Or simply written off? Will the Council have to forego other capital projects and if so, which ones? Or will land and buildings have to be sold?
Is there some even faintly believable "business plan" showing how the ongoing revenue costs will be met for the upkeep of the restored facilities? An old proverb says that "a house is a thief". As Haringey has learned to our (the residents') cost over the years, palaces are not usually money spinners.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Alan instead of just wondering out loud, why not come along this evening and put your questions to the joint Committee?
They might cut you some slack as a former Trust Board member and even if you can't speak, you could ask members beforehand, or pass questions on paper to them during the meeting.
My view is that this is the best news at AP for 30 years: good news not just for the building and our charity, but for the Borough as whole due to the halo effect. It could eventually lead to a UN World Heritage site in Haringey ;-)
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Nobody will cut me any slack, Clive. And I've done my time - fifteen years - at cosy little committees passing notes and all that tosh.
Right now, I'm simply suggesting some questions people might like to ask. I haven't got time to lift every stone.
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Alan I'm sure you'd be welcome to attend, even as a mere Trust beneficiary, like me!
Obviously I don't speak for the council and wouldn't wish to, but having a little familiarity with our charity, I might attempt to address some of your questions:
- The Heritage Lottery Fund need to be convinced of the overall case. I hope they will also take governance arrangements into account (there are unreformed). The bid was supported by the whole council.
- The so-called Alexandra Palace 'debt' has already been written off the books of the council, but it has not yet been discharged. This could yet be done, but other measures probably need to be put in place first.
- As far as I'm aware, no land or buildings will be sold. A hotel (privately owned and operated) in the south west wing is not part of the current regeneration, but it is a vital part of the overall scheme in the long run. It's been mooted for at least 13 years, but as I think you know, there was mismanagement for a long time.
- The current scheme is of course important for its own sake, but it will also be important to attract a good hotel operator. The difficulty has been the degree to which the building needed to be fixed. If the corner pub was smartened up (as it has been) that is nowhere enough to give confidence to an international hotel chain. On the other hand, for a long time we were told that £36 million was needed to fix the building and therefore it all had to be sold off (to the former slum-lord). Such a sum was never going to be found all at once – it could not even be spent all at once.
- What is happening now is the right amount of fixing-up is being done: the Goldilocks temperature: not too little and not too much: enough to be credible.
- Rejoice!
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Birds gotta bicycle; pigs gotta fly.
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Though I was surprised to learn it was a myth that Shah Jahan planned another mausoleum on Muswell Hill and was overthrown by his son Aurangzeb before he could arrange transport for the marble, palm trees, etc.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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While it's good news that this part of the Palace could be restored and I hope to see it happen, it's unfortunate that it was never a very good theatre. The CGI above shows that, without raked seating, the sightlines are poor.
Some imagination needed to make best use of the space, other than for drama.
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You're right John, it wasn't ideal as a theatre. My understanding is that it will become a multi-use/multi- purpose space.
You've put your finger on the ingredient that was missing for some two decades: imagination!
The Eeyore outlook that so long prevailed meant that vision was absent. This dismal view was memorably characterised by one significant player as, "there's a lot of glass-half-empty people around!"
(Incidentally, an Engineer's view of this situation would be, that that glass was always twice as big as it needed to be ;-)
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Actually, Clive it was the exact opposite. Always oodles of imagination. People dreamed in marble halls that it would trade its way out of loss and not be a vast drain on public funds. The good times with Ally Pally were always just about to happen. This joyous optimism included my ex-colleague Charles Adje. No glass half empty there. At the time his cup-ranneth-over.
And just to be completely clear, I'm not opposed to all the imaginative plans people want to see. Nor to the completely independent trust you want. As long as the money people gamble on a "sure thing" comes from their own pockets and not from the Council Tax payers of Haringey.
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Permalink Reply by michaela rourke on
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Oh Alan you are always such a misery. I don't mind paying my council tax if it's spent on things like this which improve my local area and provide potential for long term income where previously there has just been decay. It's a real joy to see Ally Pally coming back to life after such a long period of decay, it's there for local people to use and for those from further afield to discover. I think it's important to support initiatives like this, otherwise we'll lose places like the palace for good.
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Soo, I'd simply like people to know the facts and have the choice. What you spend on x you can't also spend on y.
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