OLD SHRINE IN DECAY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21216, 23 December 1930, Page 10

OLD SHRINE IN DECAY.

ROMANTIC MEMORIES. MINISTER’S COURTING DAYS. “Unless £IIO,OOO is available very shortly, Alexandra Palace and Park are threatened with disaster. Both will go down into decay, and have to be closed very shortly. This tragedy must not be allowed.” Mr George Lansbury, British First Commissioner of Works, in his office in Whitehall recently related to a reporter a few of the efforts he is making to save a pleasure resort which for generations has been a source of enjoyment to thousands of Londoners. He did some of his own courting there, and to see it vanish would partially destroy some of his happiest memories. “I was pained when I visited the palace,” he said. “It was there I first saw a man descend in a parachute. I can remember to this day how I held my breath. I used to take my sweetheart there, and one glorious day—about 1883, that would he—l went there with my first two babies. Now, through nobody’s fault except sheer poverty, it has fallen on_ evil times, and £192,000 will be required to restore the palace and renew the grounds.

“ Subject to examination and approval of details, the Treasury have agreed to make a grant of £3 for every £4 spent on labour. This means a Government grant of £82,000, leaving £IIO,OOO to be found from other sources.

“ Last session Parliament gave numerous London municipal authorities powers to make grants, or raise loans, to help the palace, and I am confident that they will do everything possible. “There are Philistines who say that the site would make excellent building space, but in my view, it would be a crime to allow such a piece of vandalism. “There is no reason why the palace should not have the finest cinema in London, and, on the educational side, a portion of the buildings could house a great polytechnic. “ It must not be forgotten that both the Alexandra Palace and the Crystal Palace began by catering for an entirely illiterate populace, but there is no reason why the Alexandra Palace should not bo brought up to a completely modern standard.”