Alexandra Palace Theatre

About

The Alexandra Palace Theatre was originally built in London, England, in 1873 for the performance of opera and ballet, but within a few weeks was burnt to the ground with the rest of Alexandra Palace. The Palace, including the theatre, was rebuilt and reopened in 1875 and is now a Grade II listed building. The new theatre included a 22-foot (6.7 m) cellar below the stage which housed complex machinery for use in scene changes and movement of actors. The theatre fell into disrepair for many years but was reopened in 2018 after refurbishment to consolidate it into a state of arrested decay. The stage machinery is one of the few surviving examples of its type in the country.

1875: Theatre rebuilt: The co-architects of the 1875 Palace were John Johnson and Alfred Meeson. They worked with an expert in stage machinery called Thomas Walford Grieve, son of Thomas Grieve, who designed sets for many London theatres during the 19th century. The stage machinery, housed 22 feet (6.7 m) below the stage, included many different mechanisms to enable scene changes, lower actors through the stage floor (traps) and to enable actors to 'fly' over the stage. According to articles in The Era and The...