Open House London

Open House London 2009

"Unleashing my inner nosey neighbour" instincts at this year's Open House London weekend was restricted to just the Saturday.

Visited:

• Alexandra Palace: the old BBC studio (where the first high definition TV was transmitted) and the Alexandra Palace Theatre (from a distance, due to health and safety issues).


• Royal Academy of Arts (unplanned, but glad to have made it to the last tour on the day).

Alexandra Palace, BBC TV studio
The Open House London official book implies that 35 people at a time would be allowed into the old BBC tv studio.

To comply with health and safety regulations, firemen inspected the tv studio a few days before the event and decided that only 10 people at a time would be allowed into the studio.

Alexandra Palace, Open House London, direction

Unsurprisingly, the queue for the BBC TV studio was already fairly long by 10:45 hrs; the queue was already beyond the "expect a 1 hour wait from this point" sign, taped on the low railings positioned to help aligned the queue.

The documentary "BBC Television at Alexandra Palace" in the Londesborough Room seemed more inviting than a long wait in the queue (in bright and burning sunlight).

Alexandra Palace, Londesborough Room - Open House London

The queue had grown longer by the time I rejoined it after watching the documentary. An hour and a half after rejoining the queue, ten of us were counted into the BBC Tower 9the building housing the transmitter and the tv studio).

Two short flight of stairs later, we gazed in amazement and delight at the studio reconstruction - the "result of many hours of voluntary work by the Alexandra Palace Television Society, the Ferguson Group and the Test Card Circle".

Poster: "Television Comes To London"


BBC TV Studio Museum

Many thanks to the members of the Alexandra Palace Television Society, the Ferguson Group and the Test Card Circle who were there to explain and answer questions on the exhibits.

We were promised that next year, we will be able to have our photographs taken, standing or sitting amongst the TV studio waxwork. Madame Tussauds could have a competitor...

Reconstructed BBC TV control room

About Alexandra Palace


Royal Academy of Arts
Deciding to go to an Open House London guided tour at the Royal Academy of Arts at Burlington House was a spur of the moment decision.

Best decision of the day - we were treated to a jam-packed two hours of knowledgeable and insightful talk and descriptions by Richard Kirwan, a Senior Tutor at the Royal Academy Schools.

Our Royal Academy of Arts' tour included:

• the history of Burlington House (the Royal Academy of Arts have been based in Burlington House since 1867).


• the ongoing work in The John Madejski Fine Rooms.


• brief historical background on some of the founder Academicians - Sir Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin West (an American), Thomas Gainsborough...


• we were taken to the Royal Academy Research Library (despite having overstayed our welcome by this stage! We thankfully had some knowledgeable people in our group who kept asking questions, the rest of us just listened raptly to the questions and the answers!).
  
  We were welcomed by "John" in the Library (sorry, didn't catch the surname). John mentioned that they refer to the nameless Roman statue in the Research Library as "wounded knee":-)
  
  The Royal Academy Research Library is described as the "oldest Institutional fine Arts Library in the United Kingdom", it is an amazing room.


• we were shown around the Royal Academy Schools Understandably we weren't allowed near the students' ongoing work. Various sculptors and masterpieces doted around the Schools were pointed out to us.

The Royal Academy of Arts Research Library and the sculpture, "Wounded Knee"

Outside in the Annenberg Courtyard, Anish Kapoor's new sculpture, "Tall Tree and the Eye" (which was being installed in the Courtyard) took on a more fascinating meaning and understanding).

We walked out onto Piccadilly to hear the Fortnum & Mason clock chime six o'clock. We watched as the two figures popped out of the clock case, stood still to be admired, pirouette once, returned to their original position then moved back inside the clock case...

Fortnum & Mason clock

We had cream tea at Patisserie Valerie, a few doors from Fortnum & Mason. A perfect end to a perfect Saturday morning and afternoon.



Copyright © Abimbola Akanwo. All photographs taken and owned by Abimbola Akanwo. 2009. All rights reserved.