The Baird Control Room

This area was originally the Baird Control Room, though today it looks very different to the diagrams of 1935 and 1936. Immediately to the left of this photograph is the doorway that leads into Studio B. To the right is a doorway which leads into what was the Baird Spotlight Studio.

The photograph of the balcony and the view of North London beyond was taken from the same position, but turned around by 180° degrees. The balcony runs along the front of the building between Studio A and Studio B. On occasion the television cameras would be rolled out from Studio A and on to the Balcony area for shots across London and down to the garden area immediately in front of the Palace.

Now the former Baird Control Room is used as a storage area, all television equipment has long since been removed, and while I have called this area the 'Baird Control Room', Baird Television actually vacated their 'half' of the television studios in February 1937. Currently the room contains box after box of files, documents and plans - all proposals from the 1986/87 survey. This survey, which was one of many plans to renovate and rejuvenate Alexandra Palace, like all the others, cost many hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money. Yet despite the expense no work was ever carried out, except of course the mountains of paperwork that were produced.

The former Baird Control Room is also in need of attention, though perhaps not as much as Studio B. At least the ceiling and room area are sound and the floor is safe.

The importance of this building as a national heritage site cannot be underestimated. While funding from many sources, such as the lottery, is liberally thrown at buildings such The Dome, which has no heritage value whatsoever, Alexandra Palace, and the site of the world's first regular television broadcasts, continues to fall further and further into disrepair.