This review is on the Crystal Palace in London. I worked here with my company some three years ago at the National Sports Arena and spent a lot of my lunchtimes in and around the site which once stood the Crystal Palace and the Exhibition of 1851.
This review will be a history of the Crystal Palace and the decline of this famous Victorian landmark.
It's Conception The design for the Crystal Palace was by Sir Joseph Paxton and was designed in the incredible time of only 10 days! This was a huge goliath of a building constructed or iron and over a million feet of glass.
The British were arguably the leaders of the Industrial Revolution and feeling very secure in its ideal that The Great Exhibition was a way of symbolising its industrial strength and military strength. The British at the time were very arrogant in the way in which they wanted to 'show' their achievements at the time to the 'less civilised' countries. In 1851 Great Britain was arguably the world leader in both its economy and it its political mite and therefore the public felt secure, and Queen Victoria was very eager to reinforce this feeling throughout the country, by staging this 'Great Exhibition'
The 1851 Exhibition And Its Construction This was conceived by Victoria's German husband, Alert who she had married in 1840. There were at the time,
outbursts of opposition to Albert both by the public and the press. At the time, Albert had admiration for the Prime Minister, Robert Pell in his political and military advances and publicly advocated these which started to sway public opinion and started the 'Victorian' age we all know and recognise today.
The original Crystal Palace was erected in Hyde Park and the building was 1850 feet in length and 110 feet tall.
It was built by 5000 navies (labourers / tradesmen as they would now be called today) and these men worked very hard and completed their tasks quickly.
Joseph Paxton was knighted after his magnificent work. He had started as head gardener at Chatsworth, in Derbyshire, where he had befriended its owner, the Duke of Devonshire. Here, he experimented with glass and iron in the creation of very large greenhouses and by this noticed some of their strength and durability. He applied this newly found knowledge to the plans of The Great Exhibition building.
The 900,000 square feet of glass was provided by the Chance Brothers Glassworks in Smethwick, Birmingham. They were the only glassworks company of its day capable of fulfilling such a large order, and still had to bring in labour from France to meet the deadline in time.
Over 13, 000 exhibits were displayed and viewed by nearly 6,200,000 visitors to the exhibition. The millions of visitors that journeyed to The Great Exhibition of 1851 marvelled at the industrial revolution that was propelling Britain into the greatest power of all time. Among these exhibits from all over the world were the Jacquard Loom, an envelope machine, tools, kitchen appliances, steel making displays and a reaping machine al the way from the United States. The objects on display came from all parts of the World including India and the more recent white settlements of Australia and New Zealand that made up the new British Empire.
The profits from fees (from companies displaying their exhibits) and public entrance fees allowed the Foundation of Public Works to be set up and in doing so gave us the Albert Hall, The Science Museum, The National History Museum and The Victoria and Albert Museum.
The building was divided into a small series of sections depicting the history of art and the architecture from ancient Egypt through to the Renaissance and also exhibits from industry and the natural world. Major concerts were also held in the Palace's huge arched Centre Transept which also contained the world's largest organ. This Transept also held a circus and was the setting for real daring stunts of the time by tightrope walker Blondin (he tight roped across Niagara Falls). The first ever Motor Show and Cat, Dog, Pigeon and Flower Shows were also held here over the years.
The Crystal Palace itself was almost outshone by the park that it was sited in. This contained a large series of fountains comprising almost of 12, 000 gallons of water and individual jets. The largest of these threw water to a height of 250 feet.
After the Exhibition closed (after only 6 months) the Crystal Palace was moved to Sydenhem Hill in South London and in its reconstruction it created in effect a 200 acre theme park. This was opened by Queen Victoria in 1854 on June 10th. Two railways stations were opened to serve the permanent exhibition. The lower level station is still in use today and had fairly extensive repair work carried out on it in my time working there, back in 2003. There was a subway which ran from the station to the Parade Area which can also still be seen today but I believe this is only on guided tours which are held on Sundays but I unsure of prices for this.
The Bases of two enormous water towers can still be seen today both at the north and south end of the site and were constructed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel who was also consulted and came up with the design. These were used as reservoirs which gathered water from both ends of the park as well as the middle. These were opened by Queen Victoria two years later after construction.
The Decline The usual misfortunes of the Palace began as money was not available for maintenance. This was to a large extent due to the failure to obtain sufficient money from admission fees and also the fact that the site and its displays did not cater for the majority of the population of its day.
In 1911 the Festival of The Empire was held at the building to mark the Coronation of George V and Queen Mary. After this event and over the next few years, the building fell into decline and the 1st earl of Plymouth purchased it for the Nation to save it from Developers.
Destruction Of The Palace November 30th 1936 was the fateful night that the Crystal Palace burnt to the ground. The fire could be seen for miles around and as it was not insured there were not funds to rebuild it afterwards.
All that was left standing after the fire were two water towers and as I was told whilst working up there, these were taken down in the Second World War as the Germans were able to use them to navigate their way into London to bomb the British.
I had the pleasure of walking around what is now left of this once glorious feat of Victorian engineering and I found it very sad to see the endless graffiti daubed on the walls and on the statues that still remain. The Foundation, set up to keep what is left of this site continues to keep it as weed free and as safe as possible so that we are still able to walk around it. I find it amazing as with so many other great engineering feats of the time, that they are left to ruin and decay. Until you actually walk around the site, you can not really get a true feel of how impressive this once was in its heyday.
I hope you enjoyed this read and a little of the history surrounding the Crystal Palace. I enjoyed many lunchtimes spent walking around the site in the summer and walking up the main stairs which still lead you onto the great Centre Transept.
Thanks for reading, hope you found it interesting. xx
Pictures of The Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace
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Can't say its somewhere i'd enjoy..but I LOVE London haha xx
nick979 20.03.2007 19:02
I have really enjoyed reading this review, It is such a shame that it was destroyed.
Great Review Nick
orlando 28.01.2007 12:25
I grew up near there, and still support Palace FC. My mother was 10 when it burnt down, and living in Hackney and she watched the glow in the sky from the burning glass through her bedroom window. Excellent review and great pictures. Gwen
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