Alexandra Palace Organ
London N22 4AY
The unofficial website
1990 Was the year in which the partly rebuilt Alexandra Palace Concert Organ sounded again to its public, thanks to all those who had donated so generously to the Appeal. Those who were there will never forget that moment. The owners of the partially restored organ are now the Palace Trustees, but they still depend upon the Appeal to raise the funds.
1994 Work on the organ continued with a grant from the Foundation for Sports and the Arts of £30,000 for completing the Choir section. The letter from the Appeal to the Foundation for Sports and the Arts can be found by clicking here.
Minutes meeting 4th October 1994.
"A letter has been received from the Sports and Arts Foundation offering £30,000 for the completion of the organ. To satisfy their terms it was necessary to change the requirements to the completion of the choir organ. This was made and the money is now awaited."
Meeting 4/10/94
The general Secretary (DW) reported that we had confirmation of the grant of £30,000 that must be used to help COMPLETE the choir pipework in the foreseeable future.
You might care to notice, that the letter to the Foundation was written by one D***d W**d. At that time Curator and Secretary to the Appeal. He was soon to add contractor, he became Managing Director of Willis in 1997, to his titles. He did resign as Secretary to the Appeal on becoming Managing Director of Willis. But is still the Curator of the organ. Some might see a conflict between being Curator and Contractor.
The choir organ was now complete. The Appeal wrote to the Charity Commissioners, to inform them of the progress to date. This letter can be read by clicking here.
It was decided that the brilliant and distinguished blind organist and composer, David Liddle (a local resident) be appointed as Organist in Residence. However, there was unhappiness by some on the committee over the appointment. The relationship between David Liddle and some of the committee broke down. He was accused of a number of “offences” and was summoned to appear before the committee. Amongst the so called charges, was the charge that his playing of the organ had caused the fire alarm to go off!!!! This was the level of the charges against him.
It has transpired that the Fire Brigade was called out to the Palace. However, the Fire Officer in charge has confirmed that this call had nothing to do with the playing of the organ. An alarm in a totally different part of the complex had been triggered
He wrote to say that he would be unable to attend the meeting, as he was on an organ recital tour of the USA. He informed the committee that he would be away, but the meeting still went on without him. In his letter to the committee he refuted all of the allegations levelled against him. In his absence he was judged guilty and was informed that he was on permanent suspension until December 1995 after which he would no longer be the Resident Organist.
1995 was also marked by the resignation, under pressure from some members of the appeal committee, of Felix Aprahamian. Dr Aprahamian had become concerned that all was not well within the appeal. He also thought that the contract for rebuilding the organ, should go out to tender. Not only did he resign from the appeals committee, he had been its chairman, but he also resigned as its President. He had been elected as President for the period of his life, in gratitude for all he had done for the organ appeal. Without his leadership there wouldn’t have been an appeal. Lastly, he resigned from the body of the Trustees. He wanted nothing more to do with the organ appeal. He had been involved with the Alexandra Palace and its organ since 1928.
1998. A report on the organ was commissioned from Ian Bell. This report was highly critical of the work already done.
1999 saw another resignation from the appeal committee. None less than the secretary. Yet another valuable person was forced to give up. His letter can be read by clicking here. This resignation was quickly followed by others. All of those resigning made similar complaints. They can be summarized in the following letter of resignation, which can be read by clicking here.
2001 Two ranks, the Contra Viola and the Cor Anglais, were removed from the Choir Organ by Henry Willis and Sons. Their absence only came to light when a recitalist reported to an appeal committee member, that the two stops were not working. This news caused consternation to the appeal committee. This also meant that the Choir Organ, the finishing of which had been paid for by a grant (see above) was no longer complete.
2002-
A sub committee was formed to liaise between the Appeal, Henry Willis & Sons, Ian Bell, Richard Molyneux (the professional fund raiser), and a major prospective donor. Ian Bell had inspected the organ some time before and had been both critical and indeed worried over the work that had been carried out. He had major reservations over the actual safety of the organ as a structure. Major progress was made at a meeting of this sub committee. The main recommendation made by the sub committee, was that the work of reconstruction should go out to tender. Also, that no more piecemeal work should be done. That it would not be possible to raise the substantial sums needed, without being able to show potential major donors that a careful tendering process had been gone through. The sub committee all felt that Henry Willis and Sons must be included in the tendering process.
The minutes of this Sub Committee can be read by clicking here.
However, this progress was totally reversed at the next full committee meeting of the appeal. The minutes of this meeting can be read by clicking here. This led to the major donor, who had attended both the sub committee meeting and the full committee meeting, withdrawing his support and indeed interest. Ian Bell withdrew for the same reasons, also expressing, yet again, great concern at the actual structure of the organ.
The chairman, Arthur Philips, a founder member of the Appeal, was ousted. This was achieved by the agenda being altered with “item 5 Election of Chairman” being brought forward to the start of the meeting while he and two other Trustees were delayed on a bus. He subsequently resigned. Arthur Philips had been a supporter of the work of the sub committee (see above). He also felt, as did all of the other members of the sub committee, that it was untenable for the contractor to be also the Curator of the organ. Yes, the Curator and the contractor were one and the same.
Later in the year two further Trustees were voted off the Appeal’s committee in their absence. Both these Trustees had been on the sub committee. Neither had received any indication that their membership of the committee was to be discussed at the meeting. The professional fund raiser withdrew his services, (His report to the appeal committee can be read by clicking here) and two further Trustees resigned, one of whom had been a major donor, due to their worries on how the appeal was being managed. All those voted off or resigning, had agreed that the work on the reconstruction of the organ, should go out to tender. This was followed by the resignation of a Patron of the appeal.
The latest news we have, is that the Organ Appeal is preparing to pay, for the second time, to have the Choir Organ completed. Also, the Solo Organ soundboard, which hasn’t functioned for some three years, is to be moved to a new position and repaired. I think you might not be surprised to hear, that the Organ Appeal is to pay for this work. You might remember that the Solo soundboard was only put in place in 1990. It worked for just ten years before causing problems. It should be remembered that the Ian Bell report stated that just about all the work carried out, would have to be done again. The whole organ would have to come down. No doubt to be paid for by the Organ Appeal again.
