Deputy Mayor visits iconic, 150 year-old listed building to see progress of decarbonising retrofit
Mete Coban MBE, Deputy Mayor of London for Environment and Energy has been to see how Alexandra Palace is getting on with efforts to achieve net zero, supported by the Mayor’s Zero Carbon Accelerator initiative.
The Rose Window, Alexandra Palace, photo by Jim Linwood / Openverse
The accelerator aims to help London meet its target to achieve net zero by offering organisations support from expert advice and training to knowledge sharing and information about finance.
The iconic Alexandra Palace presents a number of challenges. One of London’s 19,000 listed buildings, it opened on May 1, 1875 and originally comprised a concert hall, galleries, lecture hall, library and theatre. In November 1936, the world’s first regular television service began broadcasting from Alexandra Palace, with the BBC leasing part of the building for use as studios.
That pioneering spirit continues in today’s efforts to decarbonise. Over the past five years, carbon emissions from the site have been reduced by 29% through sustainability initiatives. These include updated heating systems, reduced gas consumption, replacing lighting with low energy LEDs (supported by Haringey Council’s Community Carbon Fund) and upgrading lighting systems in the both the ice rink and West Hall. The restored Victorian Theatre features an exemplary passive cooling system.
In 2024, the Alexandra Park and Palace Charitable Trust set out plans to take the building entirely off grid within a generation, reducing energy consumption and making use of the award-winning, 196-acre grounds to build climate resilience. The Mayor’s Zero Carbon Accelerator has helped to identify the long-term improvements and funding required to achieve this.
Haringey Council is also supporting the efforts being made at Alexandra Palace as part of wider ambitions to make Haringey entirely net zero carbon by 2041.
Mete Coban MBE, Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, says: ‘Retrofitting listed buildings to make them greener is no easy task, so it’s fantastic to see Ally Pally, the “People’s Palace”, leading the way with bold environmental targets and making use of our Zero Carbon Accelerator to help achieve them.
‘Their sustainability efforts aren’t just about protecting an iconic venue; they’re delivering real, tangible benefits for Londoners – cutting emissions, improving energy efficiency, and creating a greener, fairer city. And that’s exactly what the green transition is all about – taking action today to build a more sustainable London for everyone.’
Cllr Peray Ahmet, Leader of Haringey Council, adds: ‘It has been fantastic to the join Deputy Mayor and see first-hand the major sustainability improvements being implemented at this iconic building. Ally Pally has been home to major technological advances and is now determined to play its part in tackling the ongoing threat of climate change by reducing its impact on the environment. I am delighted that our partnership is inspiring the community to turn carbon cutting ideas into reality and is helping us to deliver on our pledge to become a net zero borough.’
Cllr Emine Ibrahim, Chair of Trustees at Alexandra Park and Palace Charitable Trust, says: ‘We’re proud of the affection people have for Ally Pally, and have successfully developed our spaces and programmes so that they are benefitting more people than ever before.
‘However, being 150 years old comes with its challenges. We’re older than the invention of the lightbulb and bigger than Buckingham Palace, and like so many of London’s famous landmarks, we weren’t built with the climate crisis in mind. We firmly believe we can be part of the solution though. We don’t just want people to think of us as the big, fun Palace on the hill; we want to be the big, fun, green Palace on the hill.
‘As a charity we’ve already begun taking the action we can to reduce our impact on the environment. But the next step is to identify the long term, truly transformational projects. It’s an exciting opportunity and we’re grateful to the Deputy Mayor and the GLA team for their support through the Accelerator. It recognises the symmetry between our own Net Zero plans and the Mayor’s visionary targets for London.’
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