CRYSTAL PALACE PARK
CRYSTAL PALACE PARK It may be in the deep south of London, but Crystal Palace Park is quite easy to get to -take the Elizabeth or District Line to Whitechapel then the Overground to Crystal Palace Station. Entrance is free. The original Crystal Palace was built for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park. It had the greatest area of glass ever seen in a building. After the exhibition closed, designer Joseph Paxton dismantled his gigantic structure and used the parts to construct an even bigger exhibition building within a sprawling leisure park in South East London ..... Queen Victoria opened the park in 1854. A huge bust of Paxton (above, right), unveiled in 1873, stands in the park to this day. But his creation was sadly destroyed by a fire, which could be seen as far away as Brighton, on November 30, 1936. What remained was largely sold as scrap. Perhaps the structure wouldn't have survive...