Crystal Palace, (London, England), 1851-1936, Victorian Architecture




     The Crystal Palace was an iron and glass building, designed for the World’s fair in 1851. It held the Great Exhibition which consisted of over 14,000 exhibitioners, whom fell under four main categories - Machinery, Raw Materials, Manufacturers and Fine Arts. Many different countries were represented within its massive 990,000 sq/ft display space. Almost half of the exhibitions were non-British with France sending 1,500, and America nearly 1,000. Some of the American displays included artificial legs, dentures, chewing tobacco, Colt’s repeating pistol, and the McCormick’s Reaper harvester. British displays included hydraulic presses, steam engines, and cotton spinning machines.

Original Structure and Grounds
When the competition first went public the board received over 250 designs in the first three weeks, all of which were rejected. A design was then received which was low in cost, and efficient to construct given there was only eight months until the Fair. The structure was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, an Architect and garden designer. The largest a pane of glass came was 10 in x 49 in, this was used as the module in the design. Using a system of right angle triangles supported by iron beams and columns on a grid system, the structure was able to span an unbelievable distance, over 1,800 ft. The building was finished in five months, with the hands of 5,000 workers laying over 18,000 panes of glass per week. The original grounds surrounding the structure had many fountains with over 11,000 jets, accompanied by two water towers and cricket fields. “This day is one of the greatest and most glorious of our lives, the sun shone and gleamed upon the gigantic edifice, upon which the flags of every nation were flying… The tremendous cheering, the joy expressed in every face, the vastness of the building, with all its decoration and exhibits, the sound of the organ… all this was indeed moving.”-The entry in Queen Victoria’s diary referring to the opening day of the Crystal Palace.  
When the exhibition closed the structure was disassembled and reassembled in Sydenham Hill, and was declared the world’s first “theme park”. It hosted a recreated prehistoric swamp complete with model dinosaurs, the first ever and only 30 years after their discovery. The buildings unreal expanse allowed for huge exhibitions such as roller coasters, soccer fields, arenas (which hosted annual cat shows for more than 50 years) and more. It was as much of a destination as Buckingham Palace and Parliament with over 2 million visitors a year. The decline of the structure became with bankruptcy as a structure of its size was next to impossible to maintain. There were a few deaths during its life, the most noteworthy being death by hot air balloon accident, and death by escaped elephant. These financial struggles when combined with the string of Grande accidental deaths and multiple fires lead to the ultimate end of the structures legacy. the most noteworthy being death by escaped elephant and the  Unfortunately in 1936 the building was heavily damaged from a fire, then in 1941 the remaining towers were demolished because they were deemed conspicuous to German bombers. Paxton’s unprecedented construction created a self supporting shell which allowed for maximum use of interior space. While the glass overlay allowed for the flooding of daylight throughout the entire structure. The method used in this design paved the way to innovative prefab construction. Examples of this include the Dublin and New York City exhibitions of 1853.

Bibliography:
McKean, John, et al. Crystal Palace : Joseph Paxton and Charles Fox. London : Phaidon, 1994., 1994.

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