Alaina Barringer Humanitites 101 Crystal Palace Alaina Barringer Humanitites 101

The Making of the Crystal Palace It was built in May of 1851 for the Great Exhibition opened by Queen Victoria It was designed by a man named Jospeh Paxton. The palace was located in Hyde Park, London The structure was 1,848 feet long and 454 feet wide. With the help of an engineer named Charles fox, the Crystal Palace was built from glass and iron. It took 5,000 men to build.

The Great Exhibition The exhibits in the Crystal Palace had over 100,000 items for display. It had everything from the latest fashions to printing machines and even elephants. It also had other things such as carriages, pianos, organs and sculptures. There were also some shows held there such as pigeon shows, dog shows,and cat shows. Although the exhibit was a hit, unfortunately the Great Exhibition only ran for six months and then began to dwindle. The financial strain on such a huge building was too much, causing them to close it down in October of 1851.

Crystal Palace Park Joseph Paxton then had the idea of moving the Palace. It was completely rebuilt and reopened on its new location in Sydenham in June of 1854. The palace served a new purpose on this location. The place was now being referred to as Crystal Palace Park, and it became the world's first theme park. It offered education, entertainment, and even a roller coaster. They also played games like Cricket at the park as well.

Crystal Palace Park However, once again the park was having financial issues. Some say the palace became cursed with bad luck. Especially after having two people pass away at the park: one was trampled by and elephant and the other was in a hot air balloon accident. The park had many successful years but was forced to file bankruptcy in 1911.

Crystal Palace Park Unfortunately the Palace caught on fire on November 15, 1936 The palace was almost completely destroyed. However, you can still see some of it’s remains today.

Works Cited http://www.angelpig.net/victorian/crystal_palace.html http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/victorians/exhibition/grea texhibition.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2004/07/27/histo ry_feature.shtml