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.
> 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.
It's such a great, strange park. Lots of random abandoned follies. I've been mugged there twice but still it feels weirdly safe. It has such a great view at night and feels so desolate and strange especially with the antennas. Going there when there's a good level of fog is excellent.
Also walked through often on my way to school, and had sports at the NSC regularly, A lovely place most of the time. The hedge maze was always fun as a kid too, but the scale of the terraces and their staircases was always something that seemed larger than life to a 12 year old kid
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.
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.
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:
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.