
The Crystal Palace - aquadrop
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Palace
======
andybak
I used to walk home through the ruined grounds of this when I was at school.
It was fenced off and pretty strange and creepy. Headless statues and vast
terraces of stone alcoves. Almost looked like it could be from a game like
Journey.

It's now been tidied up and is open to the public as part of the park. I'm
glad I got to experience it when it was still strange and mysterious.

There's also an abandoned train station and huge blocked off train tunnel
quite near. We used to make up ghost stories about the place.

~~~
timthorn
> I'm glad I got to experience it when it was still strange and mysterious

Yeah, there's something about a raw location that has a much better connection
to the history. Bletchley Park today (still a good museum) is almost a theme
park when compared to what it was 10 years ago. There are still a few pure
historic sites around that haven't had the chance to visitor attraction
treatment but almost by definition they're harder to find.

~~~
rbirkby
Except if you go around the rear to TNMOC.

~~~
timthorn
That somewhat reinforces my thesis - 10 years ago you didn't need to go around
the rear as there wasn't a fence separating the two.

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tyingq
There's a building in Dallas, Texas called the Infomart that looks like it
might have taken inspiration from it:
[https://cdn.bisnow.net/fit?height=489&type=jpeg&url=https%3A...](https://cdn.bisnow.net/fit?height=489&type=jpeg&url=https%3A%2F%2Fs3.amazonaws.com%2Fcdn.bisnow.net%2Fcontent%2Fimages%2F2016%2F08%2F57c6f4f5afe24_Infomart.jpeg&width=717&sign=9GgA4r1ifqbYjhQesenTsIhvqyVdI_eetfo1xppKTCY)

Edit: Ah, so not a coincidence...

 _" The design was modeled after The Crystal Palace, a huge iron and glass
building originally erected in Hyde Park in 19th century Britain"_

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infomart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infomart)

~~~
heyflyguy
I came here to post this, I worked there for a long time. Yahoo used to have a
huge datacenter there when Yahoo was a big deal in the late nineties.

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wdfx
I live quite close to what is now crystal palace park. I would have loved to
have seen the building, even in ruins. It boggles my mind how the Victorians
even managed to relocate the entire structure from Hyde park, especially given
that the crystal palace park site is on the top of a massive hill (in fact one
of the highest points in greater London). The park now is a nice place to go
walking and hang out in the summer. There's a natural bowl area which would be
great for concerts if only the local council can get their act together to
refurbish the stage.

~~~
vidarh
There's an Italian restaurant (Pizza at the Palace) at the Crystal Palace
triangle that has a series of fantastic pictures and artworks of the Crystal
Palace, including pictures of the fire itself, on its walls.

~~~
wdfx
I know it well. I have several old prints/lithographs and original photos of
the palace hanging at home too :)

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dang
The Crystal Place became a symbol in 19th century Russian literature. These
two articles are by a specialist who adds "I live in Crystal Palace and have
been reading up on the palace itself and the area, exploring the ruins and
generally gaining a new perspective."

The socialist utopian Chernyshevsky ("What is to be done?") celebrated it as a
triumph of progress and modernity:

[http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/04/20/crystal-palace-
russia...](http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/04/20/crystal-palace-russian-
literature-1/)

Dostoevsky visited it and hated it, and used it for one of his most famous
anti-utopian invectives:

[http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/04/22/the-crystal-palace-
in...](http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/04/22/the-crystal-palace-in-russian-
literature-2/)

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als0
I've been to the ruins, which are atop a lovely park. It's a real shame that
it never got rebuilt.

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ginko
In a similar vein in Vienna there was also the Rotunde built for the Vienna
World Fair of 1873 which burned down in 1937.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotunde](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotunde)

[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotunde_(Wien)](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotunde_\(Wien\))

~~~
twic
Reminds me also of the San Francisco World's Fair of 1915, which included some
cyclopean structures which are mostly gone today:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u47URbxlVIg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u47URbxlVIg)

[https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/61495/12-photos-1915-san...](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/61495/12-photos-1915-san-
francisco-worlds-fair-then-and-now)

As a comment on the video testifies, the construction and then obliteration of
such an enormous site is popular fodder for Cultural Layer type conspiracy
theorists.

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jbay808
Sometimes I feel like the Victorian era was bad fiction. Who would believe
this?

* Designed and costed in two weeks * Eight months from design acceptance to building completion *100% modular; reassembled into a different building after the event

~~~
jdsully
I can gurantee there was no environmental impact assessment, comment period
for local residents, nor mandatory safety training, rest periods, or other
accommodations for the workers.

Whether or not these things are a net positive they do serve to slow things
down dramatically.

Also without safety glass that place would have posed a massive safety hazard
of falling glass shards.

~~~
aquadrop
There was kind of environmental review. At least there was environmental
opposition to building it in the park and they added dome to the building so
it could fit old elm trees completely inside the building and so trees were
saved.

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lifeisstillgood
Can I urge people interested in this to hunt down Bill Bryson reading his own
book "At Home" \- the first chapter is mostly the crystal palace history and
is fascinating

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Animats
If you want to walk through the Crystal Palace, a virtual copy is being
constructed in Second Life by the city-state of New Babbage. Opening next
spring.

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0898
People still play Second Life?

~~~
Animats
Yes. If it were on Steam, it would rank about even with GTA V Online. Average
online users, all in the same world, is in the 35,000-50,000 range.

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aquadrop
I think it's a great read that shows how projects (including IT) can be
effective if you find right approach for the task.

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nathancahill
Not to be confused with Crystal Palace FC.

~~~
andybak
Always used to bother me that the football grounds weren't actually in Crystal
Palace. It was bloody miles from Selhurst Park to real thing!

(actually - now I think about it why was the football ground called Selhurst
Park? It was in Thornton Heath!)

~~~
wdfx
It's actually in Selhurst. Though nowadays with the (sub)urban sprawled it's
hard to delineate where exactly Norwood, Selhurst and the 'Heath meet or
overlap.

