The Willis Organ

The organ situated in the Great Hall is the second organ “Father” Henry Willis built for Alexandra Palace. The original organ was destroyed in the Palace’s first fire in 1873. This second organ, originally powered by 2 steam engines had 5 keyboards, 101 stops, eight thousand pipes and was almost 100 feet tall. The organ drew huge audiences over a 40 year period from the Palace’s second opening in 1875. During WW1 the Palace was used as a reception centre for thousands of Belgian refugees, later came German and Austrian POWs and finally civilian internees. The Great Hall accommodated several thousand people all of whom lived, slept and cooked with the organ towering above them. Unfortunately, soot and oil from their cookers and fluff from their blankets got into the organ clogging its pipes and mechanisms, so although basically sound, the organ was unusable by 1918. Significantly greater damage was caused to the organ by the colonial troops who remained at the Palace until August 1921. The troops vandalised its internal mechanisms and ripped out numerous pipes which were later found smashed and scattered around the Palace, its railway station and the surrounding area. The estimated cost of repair was £8,000, a vast amount when compared with the original organ building cost of £6,000.

Although the Palace Trustees sought compensation from the Government, the partial amount received was used for alternative purposes, consequently the organ remained unusable. In 1925 an Organ Restoration Appeal was set up, but by May 1928 the fund was still short of the required amount. Henry Willis stepped in to take responsibility and financial liability for its restoration, modernisation and for its conversion from steam to electric power. Following the death of Queen Alexandra it was decided that once the organ was restored, it would be North London’s memorial to her. Finally the organ was re-commissioned on 7th December 1928 and the event marked with a recital. George Dorrington Cunningham (1978–1948) the Palace’s original organist and the best known recitalist of his day, returned to play. During the recital Henry Willis left his seat and went to stand at the back of the hall “practically under the great clock where the instrument is heard most perfectly” (1)

Between then and the New Year, a programme of recitals with visiting organists took place. However, the instrument could not be mastered in a short time by any but the most exceptional organists. One visiting organist who demonstrated complete mastery on first acquaintance was Marcel Dupre in 1930, Dupre pronounced it the finest concert organ in Europe.

The Trustees decided to employ a permanent resident organist and on the advice of Cunningham, in April 1930, Reginald Goss-Custard (1877-1956) was appointed. Later, he declared “To play the instrument is a Herculean task. It has taken me a year to know what I do about it and I have a lot to learn yet. The concentration necessary is tremendous. At the end of the Recital I am often quite exhausted” (2) Use of the organ with orchestras and bands was limited due to its old-fashioned (high) pitch. Attendance at concerts dwindled and recitals were reduced from weekly to monthly intervals. By 1935 the organ was rarely played and the Trustees were reduced to allowing local church organists to give recitals without fee and letting the public in free of charge during the summer months. The pitch of the organ was lowered in 1939 to a modern concert pitch, the cost being borne by the proceeds from a grand Handel Festival conducted by Sir Henry Wood before an audience of 5,000. In 1944 a V1 blew out the Rose Window and parts of the Great Hall roof. Although the organ wasn't badly damaged by the blast, it soon was by the weather and years of neglect. Eventually, during the severe winter of 1946/7 when snow lay on the organ, as much as possible of it was dismantled and laid in the isles of the Great Hall where the roof above was relatively waterproof. Yet again, war damage payments were insufficient and the Trustees, again with little success, launched an appeal for its restoration.

In 1966 responsibility for Alexandra Palace and its organ transferred to the Greater London Council. The organ, dismantled for over 20 years was in very poor condition, its past made it difficult for the GLC to justify any expenditure so its future lay in jeopardy. The organ had only been played for one third of its life and appeals for funding during the 1920s, 1930s, 1950s and 1960s had met with meager responses. Henry Willis the fourth, great-grandson of the original builder, succeeded in buying the organ from the GLC ‘on behalf of the nation’. To prevent further deterioration, he removed some of the pipes to his workshop for safekeeping; the GLC ruled that the casing and the dominating pipes from the 32 foot pedal diapason must remain.

In 1980 Haringey Council purchased the Palace from the GLC for the nominal sum of £1. Almost immediately a large part of the Palace, including the Great Hall and what remained of the organ, was destroyed by fire.Shortly afterwards the Trustees took the decision to rebuild the Palace, which included taking the first step in restoring the Organ to its original condition. The Palace re-opened early 1988 and shortly afterwards an Organ concert was held, the first for many years. In 1982, the Alexandra Palace Organ Appeal was launched with the aim of restoring the organ to its former glory. Since then the APOA has contributed significantly to further stages of its re-build and plans to spend £50,000 in 2011. The APOA organises several concerts each year, with one of the highlights being the showing of a silent film with accompanying music played by Donald Mackenzie, the Resident Organist at The Odeon, Leicester Square. 1 = Rotunda March 1930 2 = Hornsey Journal