Over the last 18 months, the Trustees of Alexandra Palace (working with architects Farrell Associates) have developed and approved a ‘spatial Masterplan’ for the future use of the site. These plans focus on the entire building and include concepts for a range of repair and redevelopment opportunities to the existing spaces, the re-opening of derelict spaces, improvements to access routes and approaches to the Palace.
Why do we need to ‘regenerate’ the Palace?
Together Alexandra Park and Palace has 150 years of history, this project will enable us to celebrate its history promoting a sense of local pride whilst widening community interest and enabling access to learn and appreciate the site’s rich heritage. In its current state, while the Palace currently offers a unique visitor experience across a range of events, it is under-utilised and inefficient as a business.
With over 40% of its space in a derelict or unusable state, the Palace does not currently generate enough income to cover maintenance costs and there is a growing need for significant investment to improve facilities, some of which have not been updated since the 1980s.
To improve and secure the future of the Palace, we have developed a design-led Masterplan for the site with plans for phased improvements over the next decade.
What does the masterplan deliver?
Our vision for the long term future of the Palace and Park is to:
• Establish the Palace firmly for the long term as a major entertainment destination;
• Realise the community and learning potential of the Palace and Park;
• Sympathetically conserve the Palace and Park for future generations;
• Make the Palace more financially self-sufficient and reduce our dependence on public subsidy.
Our plans turn these objectives into design proposals for different parts of the Palace. A summary of the Farrells Masterplan (July 2012) is available to view from the
Downloads Page.
Why was a Public Consultation held?
Alexandra Palace held a public consultation on the regeneration plans during May/June 2012 to hear the views of our community and the users of our Palace and Park. With over 2,200 responses, we received overwhelming support and you can read about the results
here. Feedback from the consultation was an important part of defining the priorities for the Regeneration programme, including the scope of our HLF application which plans to restore the historic eastern end of the building.
Your ongoing support is essential if we are to make progress with our ambitious plans. Whether you live locally or further away, whether you are a member of an interest group or an event organiser, we would welcome your feedback and comments which will help us to prioritise our ideas as we move to the next stage of the regeneration process. While the formal consultation has closed, we continue to welcome feedback and thoughts on the Regeneration plans, so please email us directly at:
tomorrowsallypally@alexandrapalace.com.
Further consultations and open days will be planned as the programme continues to progress and dates and more information about these events will be advertised on our website. Please keep checking our website for more details.
What stage are we at?
We are at a very exciting stage, with two stages of the Masterplan starting to come to life. Following our successful public consultation which provided us with feedback our on Masterplan in July 2012, we submitted a Round 1 application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in November 2012 for a £16.8m grant. This grant application will fund will part of a major project costing £23.9m which will re-awaken the historically significant areas within the Palace including the beautiful Victorian Theatre and BBC Studios. The project will also restore the East Court as the Palace’s main visitor entrance and focal point for the building and will join together the historic areas and our popular Ice Rink with interpretive displays telling the story of popular entertainment at Alexandra Palace. Our bid incorporated a lot of the feedback received during our public consultation in the summer of 2012 and an outline of the project is available by clicking
here.
We are delighted to announce that the HLF have approved our Round 1 application. This involves an award of around £850,000 of development funding which will support the refining of our regeneration plans, notably developing designs, ahead of our Round 2 application’s submission in late 2014 which will fund the project’s construction works.
See our new HLF Project tab for an outline of the scope of this exciting project, estimated timelines and further links to additional information.
As part of the second stage of our Masterplan priorities, Knight Frank – a world leading real estate consultancy - were appointed in 2013 to help us test the feasibility of developing the space currently used as the Panorama Room into a hotel and function space. At present we envisage retaining public access to the Palm Court and ground floor areas of the hotel, with preliminary concepts including a café and bar on the ground floor with access out onto the Terrace and a restaurant in the currently derelict adjacent tower.
Click here for more information.
