Crystal Palace, Sydenham

The Crystal Palace was originally erected in Hyde Park to house the Great Exhibition of 1851, after which it was taken down and rebuilt on Penge Peak next to Sydenham Hill. The surrounding park was named Crystal Palace Park and the surrounding suburb renamed Crystal Palace. It was destroyed by fire in 1936.

This print was presumably made to celebrate the reopening of the palace at Sydenham. The enterprise was undertaken by the Crystal Palace Company, a consortium of eight business men who persuaded parliament to allow them to relocate the building. It took two years to rebuild, and in its reincarnation the structure was enlarged and redesigned with two large transepts added at either end of the main gallery. Queen Victoria again performed an opening ceremony in the presence of 40,000 guests on the 10 June 1854.

The Crystal Palace housed an exhibition of the history of fine art, a Grand Orchestra built around a 4,500-pipe organ, a concert room, and other performance and exhibitions spaces. The grounds were developed into gardens by Joseph Paxton (the building's architect), which included lakes with water jets (powered by two tall water towers either side of the Palace) and a display of 33 life-sized dinosaurs.