Come along, get dressed up, and enjoy creative and artistic activities, hot drinks, scrumptious cakes, and French pastries at Cafe Palais, our stylish 1920s café and monthly event for older people, people living with dementia and their carers.
The Café Palais event was borne out a need to combat loneliness in older people and to provide a place where people can connect with others in a shared heritage space. Being a monthly event it is something that people are able to add to their calendars and look forward to. Each month they explore their creativity through different mediums, their voices are amplified through participation and collaboration.
The story is that of togetherness and shared experience, new friendships are formed and participants feel a sense of community, feeling at home and part of the fabric of Ally Pally. This event celebrates the voices and lived experiences of older generations, drawing on music’s role in reviving memory, sparking connection, and nurturing identity, exploring how shared spaces and storytelling traditions can encourage community across generations.
Come experience the Transmitter Hall, part of the old BBC Studios which is now home to our community programme at Alexandra Palace. The space is steeped in history, being used as a banquet hall in the past. It now hosts activities for the community from boxing training for children and young people to ukulele lessons for the University of the Third Age, and everything in between.
