Geriatric OE

The weekly musing of a couple of Kiwis on their geriatric OE in The UK






Monday 13 May 2013

A bit of history...



The Crystal Palace was a cast iron andglass building originally erected in Hyde parkto house the Great exhibition of 1851. Following the success of the exhibition, the palace was moved and reconstructed in 1854 in a modified and enlarged form in the grounds of the Penge Place estate at Sydenham Hill. The buildings housed The Crystal Palace School of Art, Science and Literature and Crystal palace School of Engineering. It attracted visitors for over seven decades.
It was also one of the very first prefabricated buildings.
Well I had to be as it was never built to be a permanent structure in Hyde Park. Apparently the factory that made the glass for the original installation also made the glass for when it was moved and reconstructed.
Sydenham Hill is one of the highest locations in London 109 metres   above sea level   and the size of the palace and prominence of the site made it easy to identify from much of London. This led to the residential area around the building becoming known as Crystal Palace instead of Sydenham Hill. The palace was destroyed by fire on 30 November 1936 and the site of the building and its grounds is now known as Crystal Palace Park

No comments:

Post a Comment