Alexandra Palace Wood Green

Summary

A Victorian entertainment palace on a north London hilltop — the site of the world’s first regular public television broadcast (1936), with a large Victorian hall, BBC transmitter mast, and panoramic city views.

About this location

Alexandra Palace was opened in 1873 as a north London counterpart to Crystal Palace — a public entertainment complex of concert halls, an ice rink, a boating lake, theatre, and exhibition spaces on a 196-acre hilltop park. The BBC took over the East Wing in 1936 and made the first regular public television broadcasts in history from the Alexandra Palace transmitter; the transmitter mast (110 metres) still stands on the building’s roof.

The building is a mixture of the original Victorian structures and a substantial rebuild after a fire in 1980. The main Great Hall seats 10,000 and has an original Victorian pipe organ. The Palm Court is an ornate cast-iron and glass conservatory space. The BBC Studios within the building (now a museum exhibit) retain original technical equipment from the early television period.

For productions, the Palace gives multiple options: the Great Hall as a large event or assembly space; the BBC Studios as a period broadcasting environment; the park for exterior high-ground-north-London shots. The site is managed by the Alexandra Palace Charitable Trust with a dedicated events and film hire team.