Alexandra Palace
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Situated in Muswell Hill, North London, Alexandra Palace served as headquarters for BBC Television in the 1950s. (TV: The Idiot's Lantern)
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Alexandra Palace was opened in 1873. (PROSE: Creatures and Demons [+]Loading...{"page":"91","chaptname":"The Wire","1":"Creatures and Demons (reference book)"}) The BBC began to lease the eastern part of the building in 1935, and it was the main production and transmitter centre for the Corporation's television service for more than twenty years. Two television studios were installed, and a steel lattice radio tower was added to the top of the building. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac) The world's first regular television service started on 2 November 1936. (PROSE: Creatures and Demons [+]Loading...{"page":"91","chaptname":"The Wire","1":"Creatures and Demons (reference book)"})
Hours of television broadcast in the United Kingdom were strictly limited by the British government, and each evening's broadcasts from Alexandra Palace ended between 10.30 and 11pm with the National Anthem. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac)
During World War II, broadcasting was suspended and the BBC's "Ally Pally" antenna was instead used to jam German bombers' navigation systems. (PROSE: Creatures and Demons [+]Loading...{"page":"91","chaptname":"The Wire","1":"Creatures and Demons (reference book)"})
In 1953, the Wire planned to turn Alexandra Palace's antenna tower from a transmitter to a receiver, to steal the electromagnetic energy of viewers watching the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and use it to reconstitute a physical body for itself.
Gaining admittance through his psychic paper, the Tenth Doctor struggled on the Tower with Mr Magpie, the Wire's agent, while his friend Tommy Connolly maintained the Doctor's machine for channelling the Wire back through into a form of recordable media. (TV: The Idiot's Lantern)
The TV series Nightshade was recorded in Alexandra Palace. (PROSE: Prelude Nightshade)
