Where high-definition TV broadcasts began
Alexandra Palace
The 'Ally Pally' is the most historic television site in the country.
A People's Palace
Alexandra Palace first opened in 1873 as a great recreation centre. Over 120 000 people visited the Palace in its first sixteen days and then it burnt down.
Less than 2 years after the fire, a new Palace opened with a Great Hall, which seated 12 000 people. The hall included a massive Willis Organ which was driven by two steam engines and vast bellows.
Pioneering TV broadcasts
The Palace was an ideal place for experimental TV broadcasting because of its views over London. So In 1936 the BBC leased the east wing of the building. The BBC set up two studios and a transmitter mast.
At first the BBC tried two formats, the Baird 240-line optical system and the Marconi-EMI 405-line electronic system. A year after the launch of the service the Baird system closed and 405-line transmissions.
During the Second World war, the Palace transmitters were used for electronic counter measures. Broadcasts restarted in June 1946.
Broadcasting from the Palace stopped in the early 1950s when the BBC commissioned new high power transmitter at Crystal Palace. At about the same time the production studios moved Lime Grove in Hammersmith.
In the early 1960s the new Television Centre at Wood Lane opened, though BBC Television News continued to be produced from Ally Pally until the early 1970s when it, too, moved to Television Centre.
The BBC continued to make Open University programmes at the Palace until 1980, when the television studios finally closed and the BBC's lease ended.
Submitted by: Andrew Hunt, 21 January 2007
