Alexandra Palace

Today we headed north to Alexandra Palace, a place we've often glimpsed from afar, but haven't yet actually explored. Originally opened in 1873, only to be destroyed by fire a little more than two weeks later, Alexandra Palace reopened in 1875 as a grand community centre of sorts, housing a library, theatre, concert hall, museum, art galleries, and meeting hall. Fire struck the site again in 1980, and the building reopened in 1988 after extensive restoration. Today Alexandra Palace contains exhibition halls, a concert venue, and a skating rink. The surrounding expansive parkland provides sweeping views of London, and hosts a fireworks display every year for Bonfire Night. Alexandra Palace is also known for the large transmitter you can see in this photo, on the roof of the building itself.

The BBC Television Service used to be headquartered here, and a blue plaque commemorates the world's first public broadcast of high-definition television from this site in 1936:

The building is quite lovely,

and although today wasn't quite a clear day, we could still make out the outlines of London's financial centres in the distance: Canary Wharf on the left and the City on the right.

We were surprised to find palm trees inside the building:

After we made our way out of the park, we walked through the neighbourhood of Muswell Hill for a bit,

popping into a few shops, including the amazing W. Martyn, sellers of fine food, tea, and coffee since 1863, with an interior decor from those early days. Currently run by the great grandson of the original owner, W. Martyn roasts their own coffee, and so the shop not only looks great, it smells incredible. The roaster sits in the window, beckoning coffee lovers, and the next time we run out of Monmouth coffee at home, we may just have to make a trek up to W. Martyn to try one of their roasts!