All language subtitles for The.Art.of.Architecture.S01E10.Episode.10.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-TEPES

Narrator: Opened in May 1873,

Alexandra Palace was hailed
as 'The People's Palace'.

Two weeks later, it burned down.

Re-built, it became famous
as the first home

of BBC Television in 1936,

and the mast which transmitted
the world's first

fully electronic television
pictures survives.

The theatre wasn't so lucky.

Used by the BBC to store props,

it's been hidden from public
view for 80 years.

Now, this sleeping beauty
has been restored.

But this is no ordinary
restoration.

The architects who took it on
settled on a design philosophy

that said decay was part of
the story...

..and should stay.

In a sense, it felt like a room
that was holding its breath.

You could almost hear the echo

from the last performance
when the curtain came down.

And it was just waiting for
whatever was coming next.

Narrator:
'Ally Pally' is its nickname.

We know it as a Victorian
'palace for the people'

that has a great hall,
an ice rink,

a home for darts and snooker
championships,

of concerts by everyone
from Pink Floyd to Blur,

and on its roof,
visible for miles,

The mast that brought the nation

its first proper
television service.

But very few in living memory
remember it as a theatre.

That's because the theatre,
in the East Wing,

was very soon converted
to a cinema

and then given to the BBC
for use as a props store

for the many productions
broadcast from Alexandra Palace

between 1936 and 1969.

By that time, the theatre
had been so bashed about

that it seemed to some
the only option was a re-build.

Until architects Feilden Clegg
Bradley came along.

The decay was a challenge
in that it was about,

in a sense,
the fragility of the space,

the fragility of
the built fabric,

but the fragility of
the character as well.

And something that came across
very clearly

from us and from the clients

and we were in total agreement
about this is that

what was really important
about the space

was to preserve that character.

And in its fragility, it could
have been quite easily destroyed

by well meaning repair
or by restoration.

So, thinking about
what it had to be,

London has got a lot of
theatres.

It's got a lot of rooms
like that

which are theatres
in the West End,

but it doesn't have spaces like
that with that character.

So had we erased that pattern
of time and past uses,

we would have erased
that very unique quality

that made the space so special.

When you're right at the early
stage of a project,

there's an immediacy
in what you draw

that can't be captured by CAD.

When you do a sketch and when
you draw something by hand,

then there's nothing on the page
which hasn't been thought about,

at least to a certain degree.

Whereas if you produce a visual,

it might be a very beautiful
visual of a space.

It sort of obscures the fact
that there are things in there

which haven't necessarily
been thought about.

Of course, sometimes that's
incredibly useful as well.

You might find something
that's totally unexpected.

Be it good or, or bad.

But when you're developing
those ideas initially,

there's an immediacy to drawing

which I think is
absolutely essential.

Narrator: Bold is the architect
who suggests to the owners

of a derelict theatre that
there is beauty in decay.

Matt Somerville had to convince
the powers-that-be

to go along with his idea.

The story of the theatre
particularly is one of decay,

it's actually been derelict
for more years

than it's been in operation
as an entertainment space.

So that is the theatre's story

and therefore the arrested decay
approach was,

was the only way to really
truly tell its story.

It's not just a theatre.

It's the...the theatre space
is part of the performance.

It's part of the experience.

And I think we've done
the right thing

for the right space
at the right time.

- Architecture is certainly
a collaborative process

and a creation of buildings

and the building process itself
relies on an enormous team.

And we are one small part of
that within this office

and outside this office are
dozens and then hundreds

of people by the time you get
to the construction stage.

They all play a role
in delivering something.

So it becomes incredibly
important to have an idea,

but then to express
the idea clearly

so that people understand it
and buy into it

and support it and
ultimately deliver it.

Narrator: With the restoration
of the theatre

would come a renewal of
the East Court,

built, like the rest
of Alexandra Palace,

to a Victorian scale.

So Matt Somerville's design
brief became wider,

and his task to fit all the bits
of the jigsaw together.

Starting of course
with the iconic 1936 mast.

Which sat on top,
sits on top of the BBC Tower.

And this is clearly
identifiable.

And from that you then have the,

the great East Court,
the railway terminus space.

It has that character of
the big glass house

that's right in the middle
of the East Wing here.

And then the theatre is off
at this end, actually not built.

But this is the theatre foyer

and this is what we called
the theatre tower,

originally a story higher, but
lost perhaps 40 or 50 years ago

after the,
after the Second World War.

But within these spaces,
much of what we were doing

is just allowing those spaces
to breathe again.

So we opened them to their
Victorian proportions.

The BBC during their occupation
of all of the East Wing

of the palace had divided
this up into little offices.

We had ceilings that stand
at office ceiling heights

within rooms that were
seven metres high.

Always at the palace there's
this, this super scale

in getting back to that
Victorian scale was such a,

an easy move, in a way,

but a move that really brought
those spaces back to life

and reconnected them.

Narrator: The model helped focus
minds on layout and flow.

But what would
the architects find

in the real-life version
of Alexandra Palace?

Built in the 1870s,
it was conceived by Owen Jones,

who had been involved in
The Great Exhibition of 1851,

Joseph Paxton's
huge glass palace

visited by six million people
while it was up,

and the South Kensington Museum

which came to be known
as the V&A.

But it was the architects
John Johnson and Alfred Meeson

who built Alexandra Palace.

How depressing it must have been
to see their building

go up in flames two weeks
after it opened.

Undaunted, Meeson, who'd
previously helped

Sir Charles Barry build
the new Houses of Parliament,

set to and did it all again.

Two years later,
the new Alexandra Palace opened,

the one we see today.

- Alexandra Palace was one of
the first entertainment palaces

built by the Victorians
at a time when Victorians

were first getting their
leisure time

and wanted to come out of
the big smoke, as such,

and enjoy open space and
promenade and be entertained

and, you know, we used to set
fire to Pompeii every night as,

as part of the entertainment.

But then of course in the 1930s,

we were the home of the first
television service broadcast.

And Alexandra Palace
is absolutely woven

into the fabric of English
heritage and culture.

Narrator: When it came to
Ally Pally's theatre,

John Johnson refused to give it
a fly tower.

He thought it would ruin
the lines of his creation,

poking above the roof.

So, background scenes
would have to come up

through the floor of the stage
rather than down from above.

And here is the magic
of this theatre.

the five huge lifts beneath
the stage survive,

along with smaller lifts

which would propel actors
onto the stage in the pantomimes

and melodramas that Victorian
audiences loved.

- What we're seeing here
is five very wide lifts.

Each one as wide as
the proscenium arch itself

on which scenery
would have lifted out

through the stage and appeared.

And this contraption here

which is one of my favourite
moments in the palace,

this is one of the star traps.

And this would have been used
to fire people

eight feet through the stage.

Someone would have stood on this
counter weighted platform,

quite small, and been fired out
through the stage itself,

accompanied of course by
a pyrotechnic puff of smoke.

And you can just imagine the
nerve

it would have taken
to stand on that,

hoping that the trap
would open at the right moment.

Narrator:
The basement of the theatre

was one of its parts
that survived

the 80 year closure intact.

But, as the architects of today
investigated

the rest of the building,
they found a different story.

- The building we always thought
showed its history very clearly.

It's had quite
a tumultuous history.

It was clearly only a theatre

for the first 50 years of its,
of its life.

It was a cinema.

It was a hospital and a chapel
during its period

as an internment camp
in the First World War.

It was the BBC's prop stores.
It's been abandoned.

All of those things, I think
when you come in here now,

you can read those in
the physical fabric of the space

and in the character as well,

so when you look at the walls
behind me,

you can see that the dereliction
of the building

has left its mark on the fabric

and the cornice that used
to join the ceiling

to the walls was removed
in order to carry out

some fairly fundamental
repairs to the,

the roof structure
back in the 1980s.

Some fairly brutal
interventions, really.

But in a way,

those interventions saved
the fabric

and they're as much of the story
of this space,

those, all of the other phases
of its use.

The side corridors here
were built in the 1920s,

we think partly to deal
with fire regulations.

Partly perhaps to do with
some poor acoustics.

The space always suffered
from its inception

with quite bad acoustics.

And when you look at it,

you realise there is
a much more layered character.

There's the Victorian shell.

There are the 1920s insertions,

which include the very
decorative plasterwork

on the, on the ceiling as well.

So it hasn't been a static
space, by any means.

It's been repaired.
It's been restored.

And it's been left
to deteriorate.

All of those phases have left
their mark in some way.

In the end,
it's that 80 years or so

of a lack of modernisation
that has saved the space

that we inherited.

Narrator: In Alexandra Palace's
theatre,

where to start
became the question.

What to repair, what to leave,
how to conserve.

It was back to
the drawing board.

We started to think about

how we would characterise
the approach we were taking,

the arrested decay
seemed to capture it,

in that you deal with those
processes of decay

or deterioration, we need to,
if nothing else,

assure the medium-term future
of the building.

We need to make it stable.

We need to keep the water out.

We need to stop it
from getting worse.

But then we reveal
that condition of the building

as a manifestation of
the stories,

the history of the building,
and in a way,

that history becomes legible
in the surfaces of the theatre

and the other rooms
within the palace.

It goes back to that very
careful listening

and understanding of what
you're dealing with.

Because the last thing that
you want to do in a project

is to cover or obscure
those qualities

which you're trying
to bring out.

So everything that's added
is about supporting

the heritage and the history
and critically making it viable,

making it capable of being used,
perhaps in entirely new ways,

or perhaps just revealing
the history

or what was significant.

Narrator: The architect
Matt Somerville

came to the Alexandra Palace
project

with that useful label
'award winning'.

His work at
Chedworth Roman Villa

in the Cotswolds
for the National Trust

was recognised by the Royal
Institute of British Architects.

The Trust spent £2 million
on a new conservation shelter

and visitor and education
centre.

Matt: Whenever you're confronted
with a side

of particular historic
architectural significance,

it's a kind of a puzzle

to unpick what's significant
about it,

what's supporting that message,

what is conflicting
with the message

or what's detracting
from its significance.

So it becomes a disassociation
of those layers

to determine which ones
we want to reveal,

which ones you want to repress,

and then that informs
how you then put something

on top of that to then enhance
what you want people

to understand about
that particular place.

Narrator: Matt Somerville
was walking in the footsteps

of the last people to have a go

at protecting
this important site...

..the Victorians.

We described our approach there
as being one of,

having a building
that was silent,

because we wanted
the archaeology to be

the star of the, of the show.

And that was very much about
taking a step back

and doing something
which isn't trying to be

in the, in the limelight.

Narrator: Chedworth was opened
in 2012

and won an RIBA National award
the following year.

Today, Matt Somerville,
who's based in Bath,

is involved in a £5 million
project to create

a World Heritage Visitor Centre
in a building

alongside the Roman Baths that
once housed the city laundry.

And, a bit like
the Alexandra Palace theatre,

had been all but forgotten.

And you wouldn't think there
would be neglect

in the centre of Bath,

but certainly neglected in terms
of their public visibility.

This complex of industrial
buildings, really,

that supported the Victorian spa
and bringing those back to use

as being a way of breathing
new life into those buildings.

And again,
we've managed to do that

with relatively little
intervention

but with key additions
just to give the signal

that there's something new
and that some things change

and that they're welcoming
the public

in a way that's never happened
in their history before.

Narrator: In between
the Roman Villa at Chedworth

and the Roman Baths in Bath,

Matt Somerville gave six years
of his life to Alexandra Palace.

He not only knows the train line

between Bath and London
intimately,

he also knows every nook and
cranny of the People's Palace.

Sitting in the theatre that he
has come to regard as his baby,

Matt Somerville reflects
on the challenges

he and the team from
Feilden Clegg Bradley faced

adapting a Victorian theatre
into a modern performance space.

One that would give
theatre companies

the flexibility they required,
comply with fire regulations,

but retain the character
of John Johnson's creation.

The approach we adopted was,
in a sense,

to change everything
in that the space had to work

in ways that were
never anticipated

by its original designers.

But at the same time,
we wanted people

to have the same reaction
and the same experience

of the space that we had
when we first went in.

I talked before about
that wow moment,

when you walk into the room.

And if people walk into
that space now

and don't have that reaction,

then we'd consider that to be
a failure.

So we had to work around,
almost surgically,

work around some very fragile,
very precious fabric

and carry out some fairly
major interventions.

The largest of those
interventions

was the removal of the entire
floor which used to slope

from the back of the auditorium
down towards the stage

at the front, which was great
for performances

within the stage,
within the proscenium,

but of course what it doesn't
allow is more flexibility

to bring performances out
into the auditorium

in a way that's flexible
and variable.

So we removed the sloping floor

and put in a new flat floor,

and then we re-laid
the Victorian boards

very carefully back on top
of the new surface.

And to support that
with the performance happening

out in the middle of
the auditorium

rather than through
the proscenium, we had to,

in effect,
rebuild the circle balcony

to a much steeper rake
directly above the original.

And then having brought
the performance out

into the auditorium,

we wanted to envelop that
performance with the audience

and we built additional seating
on the two side corridors

that had been built into the
theatre in the 1920s

along the two long sides
of that space.

So suddenly you have,

rather than the performance
happening at one end

and everyone looking
monodirectionally

at that performance,

you have the performance
out in the middle.

You can do performance
in the round.

You can do performances
on a thrust stage,

or even on a traverse stage.

And they're surrounded now
by the audience.

And it creates a space

with a much more intimate
character than it had before.

Emma: One of the significant
interventions was the floor.

So the floor was on a rake
and we had hoped

that the sleeper walls
that were under that floor

would be able to carry a new
floor to flatten it and be able,

as you see today,
in the auditorium,

have a flexible space.

But actually when we lifted
the floor,

we discovered that the dwarf
walls underneath

had been built by Victorian
apprentice builders,

and therefore not quite as
strong as we had hoped.

And so then we had to
obviously go through

a number of planning
applications

and listed building consent,

and again working very closely
with our Heritage colleagues

and our conservation colleagues,
we were able to come up

with a solution which allowed us
to bring the space

into modern capabilities without
losing that historical element.

I think that we absolutely were
in a moment of time I talk about

where we had the right people
with the right vision,

the motivation and the energy

to actually see a project
like this through.

Because I'm sure you can
appreciate

it takes an awful lot of time
and commitment

well beyond the normal 9 to 5
to realise a space like this.

And you know,
with our architects, FCBS,

and the extended design team,
I think we really came together

as a team and we could,
we could see the opportunity.

You could almost smell it.

And so people were really
willing to push themselves

that little extra
just to make it happen.

Narrator: In the long history
of Alexandra palace,

two events stand out.

The first is the fire that
destroyed everything

inside its walls two weeks
after opening, in 1873.

The second is the fire that,
in 1980, almost did the same.

The difference between
the two blazes

is that the second
spared the East Wing.

John Johnson's theatre survived

along with the famous
BBC television mast.

By now, it was owned
by Haringey Council

and they took on the job of
restoring it after the fire.

It took eight years.

2016 - work has started
on the theatre,

hidden from public view
for 80 years.

The BBC props department
has moved out,

and the builders have moved in.

There will be no wholesale
demolition here.

Instead, a careful unpicking
of the fabric,

a long process filled
with decisions

about what can be kept,
what can be let go.

At first, it resembles
an archaeological dig

more than a restoration.

There are hints at its history,

a scrap of a flyer
for a performance

by Fred Karno's Great Company

of Comedians, Pantomimists,
Vocalists and Charming Ladies.

Peeling away layers,

the mechanics of the theatre
are uncovered.

It would have been lit by gas
when it first opened.

Later, electricity was added,

and the building is a study
in 1920s wiring,

with later additions.

It's a revelation for the many
of the tradespeople

who live within sight
of the palace.

I think it's probably fair
to say as well

that so many people
who did work on that site

were from the local area
and already had a connection

with the place, and you really
got a sense of pride

with so many people involved
in the making of that project.

They were contributing.

So there was a willingness,
certainly,

to, to buy into that,
that approach.

Narrator: Scaffolding goes up

to allow the architects
and builders

to get up close and personal
with part of the theatre

that may give them
the most trouble...

..the ceiling.

Matt: It's effectively
two different phases

of construction.

There's the flat ceiling,

which is the original
Victorian structure.

It just would have had
a painted, decorative scheme

in common with the rest
of the palace.

It would have used
the simplest materials

to the greatest possible
visual effect.

The decorative scheme is 1920s,
and that was actually

in very, very good condition
comparatively.

But it was the flats that was
failing, that was very poor.

We've got chicken wire
that was nailed,

thousands of big nails into
the ceiling

across the entire surface,

held in place with
the wooden battens.

And initially you come
into a space like this

and you think we need
to take that away,

it's obscuring the reading
of the historic fabric.

But it very quickly became
apparent

that the more we touched
on that ceiling,

given its fragility, the more
we were actually going to lose.

So it became an approach
of minimum intervention.

The less you intervene,
the more you preserve.

And instead of intervening
underneath

and taking away all of
the chicken wire, well,

now we've taken it away from
the elaborate mouldings,

we repaired the ceiling from
above instead

in a way which is invisible
from within the auditorium.

The level of detail that
we went into was extraordinary.

I mean, when this entire space
was filled

with the scaffold birdcage,
Matt and I spent hours

up at the top of the scaffold
having many debates

about how many holes we were
leaving in the ceiling,

which holes we were leaving,

where the lats were going to go,
where they weren't.

You know, every inch of this
space has been thought through

to such a minutiae of detail,

but it was absolutely worth it
for the end result.

And I think it's quite easy
for people

to come into this space and say,
"Oh, well, what have you done?"

But actually, I love that.

It's like this idea that we
haven't really done anything.

We've just opened it up
to the world once more.

Narrator: The walls
of the theatre

have been knocked about
over the years but they,

and most of the damage,
will stay...

..even some additions
made in the 1920s.

It's all part of the theatre's
architectural history.

- Matt and the team
that he led at FCBS

really got under the skin

of what Alexandra Palace
is actually about.

Not only in the past
but also for the future.

And we really wanted this space
to elevate Alexandra Palace

onto a cultural landscape,

not only within London
but within the UK,

that we probably haven't
occupied for a very long time.

And FCBS absolutely
understood that,

and that's not to say there
weren't challenges

along the way,
and sort of many debates

about certain elements
of the project,

but we were always
on the same page,

and I think that's 100% why

this has been such a successful
project in the round.

One of the triumphs for me
in this space

is the fact that we were able
to lift the floorboards,

number them and put them down
exactly as they were,

which again, you know,

just retains this atmosphere
that was here originally.

Narrator: In architecture,
construction is often seen

as the poor relation,

much less glamorous
than the finished work.

At Ally Pally, one man
saw the build in another light.

Photographer Keith Armstrong

worked for the construction
company and was amazed

to discover that no-one
was keeping

a visual record of the project.

He did.

In his spare time.

Every month for two years.

The result is an essay that
turns decaying walls,

exposed pipes, scaffolding,

a sagging ceiling
and floorboards into art.

Keith Armstrong's labour of love
started life

as a possible entry
in a photographic competition.

It soon took over his life.

6,000 clicks later,
we have a unique portrait

of what went on behind
the scenes at Alexandra Palace.

The East Wing
of Alexandra Palace

is ready to receive visitors.

Where once the BBC stored
outside broadcast trucks,

the graphic artists
Art & Believe

have created a spectacular
painted floor,

an installation artwork
that you can walk on.

But what those who've lived

with Alexandra Palace
all their lives,

either looking at it every day
or using it,

want to see is the theatre,

that grand space whose seats
would once have been filled

with 3,000 people,
a secret space

now recovered from dereliction.

First in are the patrons.

People who supported this
£27 million restoration.

What would they think
of the 'arrested decay'?

I think some people who had been
bought their donations

who had not necessarily bought
into the project

personally themselves,

took a little bit
of explanation.

Did we do it this way because
there wasn't enough budget?

Did we do it this way because
we ran out of budget?

But no.

It was always the intention
and most can be persuaded

that, for some traditionalists
who like the pastiche approach,

it will always be difficult
to get.

Narrator:
Among the first productions

in what's being called
'London's Newest Old Theatre'

is Shakespeare's Richard III,

whose staging masks
the original proscenium arch.

But this just demonstrates
the flexibility

of the new design,
with its thrust stage

and the ability to stage
performances in the round.

I was lucky enough to
go along to performances

in the first week
that the theatre reopened,

and just to feel that space
suddenly alive.

I mean, that's what it was
waiting for all of that time.

There were hundreds
of people in there.

It was filled with music
and applause,

and that's when that, I mean,
that really becomes tangible.

That's when you appreciate that

that's what the building
should be doing

and that's how the building's
received and being used.

Narrator: New audiences may find
as much interest around them

as in front of them.

They could be sitting next to
a hole in the dress circle,

or an apparently crumbling wall.

Matt: That patina that those
decades have left

on the fabric of the building,
it felt really important in here

not to take away the character
that makes a space unique.

And we've seen, actually,
photographs

from the 1920s restoration
which make it look perfect.

But also strangely
characterless.

And what the space now tells
beyond that period of,

of repair is a story
which is a story of its use

as a theatre,
it's falling out of use,

it's used as a prop store,
and that period of neglect.

And that is something that
just becomes tangible

when you stand in here,

when you get up close
to the fabric

and you can see it's clearly,
it's clearly not perfect.

But that expresses something
about the story of the building,

the history of the building
is legible

in all of these surfaces.

Narrator: Lighting rigs
have been installed,

a lighting control gallery
created above the remains

of the projection box from
the theatre's days as a cinema,

and the ceiling has been
ingeniously held together.

And there is, at the front
of the dress circle,

a microcosm of this unusual
restoration.

Looking at the fabric here,

we've got the Victorian flounce

and the curving plaster
of the circle balcony.

We've got applied elements,

the applied decorative plaster
elements from the 1920s.

And then even looking behind

where this one has been removed
here,

we can see if we look
very closely,

an element of the Victorian
painted scheme.

And then even in light pencil,
the initials,

probably of the person
who put the plaster element

over the top of that.

So it tells a story of how
the space has been treated.

And again, rather than peeling
those away, they're just left.

Narrator: The arrested decay
has become a talking point.

In covering the opening,
the BBC's Arts Editor,

Will Gompertz,
labels it a triumph,

gives it five stars and calls it

'shabby chic taken to
an entirely new level.'

Entering the theatre was,
he said,

so romantic that it was
not so much

like stepping back in time
as walking into a novel.

- It really is quite wonderful.

I think it still takes
my breath away, actually,

every time I come in here,

even though I've been in here
a lot obviously

over the time of the project.

I think what really we enjoy
is also seeing audiences

coming into the space and they
have this gasp of excitement,

sort of like they're urban
explorers having found

this hidden gem that's been
lost for generations.

And this was a one-shot wonder.

We did not have
the opportunity to fail.

It had to be a success.

Because it's so important
for the future

of Alexandra Palace that it was.

The performances in the theatre

have been amazing and
the feedback to the East Court

and the theatre has just
been wonderful.

One of my favourite moments
of the whole project

was when we opened the doors
to the public

and they came in
and they loved it.

And the buzz in this space

is exactly what the palace
was made for.

For the public,
for their enjoyment.

- It's a massive privilege.

It's an enormous responsibility,
as well.

I think it's probably fair
to say that in a lifetime,

though, there aren't that many
projects like Ally Pally.

I know there will
never be anything

quite like Ally Pally again.

It's, it's truly unique.

And there aren't many buildings

about which you can genuinely
say they're an icon,

but Ally Pally certainly
is an icon.

[applause in background]

Captioned by Ai-Media
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