For the first time in 80 years , Londoners will have a chance to go inside the Alexandra Palace Theater , a chef-d’oeuvre of prudish mental synthesis that has stay hidden inside the palace for eight decades , accord toThe Guardian .
Designed to be North London ’s answer to theCrystal Palace , the Alexandra Palace was build as a public recreation space and entertainment venue in the 1870s . The current construction date stamp back to 1875 — the original , built in 1873 , combust down in a fervidness — and over the line of itshistoryhas function as a World War I refugee camp , an internment refugee camp for Germans and Austrians afterward on in World War I , and the main transmission center for the BBC .
The theater itself was atechnological marvelwhen it open in the nineteenth century , and it played host to operas , pantomimes , ballet , and melodious performances . The phase machinery allowed actors to disappear and re-emerge through the floor and flee across the point . The theater subsequently served as a chapel , a movie theater , a camp hospital during World War I , and airplane propeller computer memory for the BBC ’s broadcasting operation during the 1930s . It has n’t been used for regular performances in more than 80 years .
The restoration , which began in 2016 , is design to be a careful update of the place that makes it dependable to expend but retains its historical allurement . The original floorboards have been read out and numbered so that they can be put back in exactly the same conformation , and the walls have been painted with a clear coating that preserves their original , now - faded colors . But there will also be several architectural updates to the structure , including a modern seating system and a redesign of the balcony for better views .
The first concert performance in the new reopened theater , featuring what has only beendescribedas a “ major music act , ” will be prevail on December 1 , 2018 . The theater restoration was pay for in part by a grant from the UK ’s national lottery fund of more than $ 25.9 million , one of the largest grants of its kind ever kick in to a UK heritage task . It ’s just one art object of a larger restoration task for the Palace ’s East Wing , much of which has been off - limits to the public for days .
[ h / tThe Guardian ]
