© Helen Bendon 2015

Part of
‘Walking the City’ TCCE Annual Walking Weekend 2016

Walk Guide: Helen Bendon, Middlesex University London.
Contributor: Poet and author Maggie Butt.

Duration: about 60 minutes

Time Stands Still is a locative audio experience exploring the period between 1915-1919 when Alexandra Palace became an internment camp to 3,000 German, Austrian and Hungarian civilians living in the UK when WWI broke out.

“We lost all count, all sensation of time. Time stands still where there is no aim, no object, no sense. There is no time.” from the memoir of Paul Cohen Portheim, interned at Alexandra Palace.

On this walk, you become a visitor to the camp 100 years ago, a witness to the experiences of the men imprisoned in the People’s Palace. As you move around the park you will hear the experiences of those interned, the wives who visited, and the British military that held them.

Time Stands Still combines the prisoner’s words with soundscapes, stories and the poems of Maggie Butt. There will be a special introduction on spatialised poetry and innovative history telling by content writer and director Helen Bendon and poet and author Maggie Butt.

The app, which you will need to download prior to the walk, utilises GPS, so the stories, accounts and poems are triggered by your movement. Content is located predominantly close the Palace: on the terrace and South Slopes, but also around the East entrance and theatre to the Boating Lake. If you head down to the old racecourse you can get involved in some exercise drills!

The walk will start at Alexandra Palace east entrance,(the ice rink entrance).
Note: content is triggered by your movement so you can move freely within the part and the experience will end after 45 mins, wherever you are the park.

This walk is suitable for all levels of fitness.

Please bring your own fully charged iPhone.

Please come with flat shoes suitable for park walking.

Please note:
The Introduction will be filmed and elements of the day photographed for educational and promotional purposes. Please let us know on the day if you do not wish your image to be captured.

The app for this walk is available on iOS only.

If you would like to attend but do not have an iphone, please call us on 020 7420 9444 before booking your place.

Instructions will be provided for you to download the app before you come.

Read more about this walk on Helen’s blog post