Dates

• Existence: 1 May 1851 - 30 November 1936

Biography

The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and glass building designed by Joseph Paxton for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park, London.

Joseph Paxton was a renowned gardener, employed as Head Gardener for the Duke of Devonshire to look after the grounds at Chatsworth House. Before his involvement with The Crystal Palace, Joseph had experimented extensively with glasshouse constructions and developed his own solutions to the building of modular constructions, which inspire his design for The Crystal Palace. The building mirrored an enormous flat roofed glass house with a barrel vaulted roof in the central transept, a rectangular hall, a large open gallery running along the main axis and wings extending down either side.

Joseph Paxton, achieved international acclaim for his design and was knighted by Queen Victoria in recognition of his work. The project was engineered by Sir William Cubitt, the ironwork was provided by Sir Charles Fox, who was also knighted for his contribution, and the glass was provided by the Chance Brothers glassworks in Smethwick.

The Great Exhibition was opened on 1 May 1851 by Queen Victoria and it was the first ever World's Fair exhibitions of culture and industry. The site displayed around 100,000 examples of the latest technological developments of the Industrial Revolution by over 15,000 exhibitors from countries around the world. The exhibition was estimated to have been attended by over six million paying visitors, which generated a surplus after covering the expenses of the construction work. This money was paid for the construction of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum in London.

After the great exhibition, a consortium of eight businessmen formed a holding company to relocate the palace to Penge Place at the top of Sydenham Hill in 1852. The Crystal Palace remained in this location, providing a venue for concerts, events and entertainment until its destruction by fire in November 1936.

During the First World War, it was used as a naval training site, between the 1920s and 1930s it was the home of the Imperial War Museum. On 30 November 1936 the building was destroyed by fire and any remaining structure was finally removed during WWII. The site had various functions thereafter including, a motor racing circuit, the Crystal Palace transmitting station and an open air concert theatre.

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