When was the Crystal Palace in London built? What is he like? You will find answers to these and other questions in the article. The Crystal Palace was erected in 1850-1851 in Hyde Park in London for the 1851 World Show. It was created from glass and cast iron.
Description
Have you ever seen the Crystal Palace in London? Its showroom accommodated up to 14,000 people. It was built under the direction of Paxton Joseph and had a height of 33 m, an area of over 90,000 square meters. m. Its length was 564 m. When the exhibition was completed, the building was dismantled and moved to a new place, in the suburbs of London Sydney Hill. In November 1936, the Crystal Palace destroyed a fire. They never restored it again.
Facts
Everyone liked the Crystal Palace in London . This building gave its name to the neighboring South London area, a complex of television towers, a railway station and Crystal Palace Football Club.
In the likeness and model of the Crystal Palace in 1854, the Glass Palace was built to hold the First Industrial General German Exhibition in Munich. In 1931, five years before Khrustalny, it also burned down.
Creature
They still remember the Crystal Palace in London. Who was Paxton Joseph, the organizer and mastermind of the building? For his merits, he was elevated to chivalry. Paxton is not known to be a professional builder. He was a simple gardener from Chatsworth, who had the useful experience of creating large greenhouses.
The engineering part of the project was led by professional Cabitt William, and the design by Fox Charles. The supervisory board of the exhibition was Brunel Isambard.
The Crystal Palace in London was created very quickly . His story is amazing. Paxton proposed the use of modular structures made of wood and iron parts. It was his idea that made it possible to erect the palace in less than one year. Construction work was performed by 5,000 people (no more than 2,000 at a time).
Glazing (more than 84,000 sq. M) was produced by the largest English company Chance Brothers. She had to import specialists from France to her plants. The name “Crystal Palace” was not coined by the organizers, but by the Punch reporters. They first criticized and then encouraged the project.
Among other building innovations were the first public paid toilets. Their price was only one penny. During the six months of the exhibition, only 827,280 customers used the toilets.
1851 fashion show
What is famous for the Crystal Palace in London? 1851 was a busy and vibrant year. This year, an exhibition was held, which in general turned out to be a trade success. She made a profit of 160,000 pounds, while the construction cost 150,000. Later, the same-name crystal palaces were built for exhibitions in Porto (1865), New York (1853), Munich (1854). Huge glass landing stages of railway stations were erected everywhere, despite the difficulties in their operation.
After the closing of the exhibition
What happened next to the Crystal Palace in London? D. Paxton in 1851, what did he decide to do with his brainchild? The exhibition closed in 1851, in October. After that, the organizers were to bring Hyde Park to its original state. The society, admired by the exhibition and the palace, had no opinion on the fate of the building. Paxton, defending his palace, suggested that he establish a permanent conservatory. He was able to get permission from parliament to leave the building until May 1852 in place.
Conservatives in April 1852 made a contrasting decision, sentencing the building to complete disassembly. The palace structures were sold as scrap metal to the Fox & Henderson steelworks.
In a new place
So, you already know that in 1851 in London the Crystal Palace was to be dismantled. Paxton foresaw such an outcome. Therefore, he created the "Crystal Palace Company" (The Crystal Palace Company). He managed to attract half a million pounds of private capital into it. In order to relocate the palace, the company bought 389 acres (157 ha) of virgin lands in Sydney Hill. Of these, 17 acres were resold to the railway company, which built a passenger communication line that went around the area, and the Crystal Palace railway station (still operating).
According to Paxton's plan, the palace and the station were to be connected by a glass arcade. Another 120 acres were sold for the construction of residential buildings. After that, the new park acquired its current parameters - about 200 acres (81 ha).
The company spent 70,000 pounds to buy palace structures from Fox & Henderson. Further, in 1852, on August 5, it began construction. The new building was increased from three floors to five, which doubled its area. The halls of the new palace were made in medieval and antique styles. They were decorated with copies of stained-glass windows and statues of the corresponding eras. Over 7,000 people were employed. In 1853, in August, 12 of them died in the collapse of the roof.
A park
The park, which was designed by Milner Edward, included a “natural” lake with atolls and a double waterfall of ponds - only 15 reservoirs. Fountains consisted of 12,000 jets (altitude up to 76 m), which consumed up to 7 million gallons of water for each session. Two water towers designed by Brunel provided pressure (the first towers designed by Paxton collapsed before the park opened under the weight of the water).
The operation of the fountains was very expensive, so they were soon abandoned - two ponds were filled up in 1894, and a football stadium was built on the site of the third in 1895. Reconstruction of the park and the palace cost 1,300,000 pounds - 800,000 more expensive than the estimate.
New palace
In 1854, on June 10, a new palace was opened. Since conservatives demanded the removal of the genitals from copies of ancient statues, the discovery was delayed for a month. Critics weren’t happy with fig leaves, so the statues draped. The first object park in London in the first 30 years (1854-1884) attracted up to 2 million viewers a year. There were organized commercial and amateur exhibitions, regular sports competitions. The concert hall accommodated 4,000 people. Since 1857, Handel festivals have been held in it every year.
For the first time in history, sculptures of dinosaurs in natural growth, made by sculptor Hawkins Benjamin, were exhibited in the park. Depending on the interest in certain events, the cost of tickets ranged from 5 pence to 1 guinea. The number of visitors would probably be greater if it were not for the official ban on holding mass festivities on Saturdays. In general, the organizers of the palace could barely make ends meet, and his company, up to the death of the building, had a debt of 800,000 pounds.
Fire
It is known that the fire in the Crystal Palace in London occurred in 1866, on December 30. Ironically, the building caught fire a couple of days before a public lecture on fire safety. The northern transept greenhouses and historical halls were destroyed, all the pets in the menagerie were killed. The transept could not be restored due to financial difficulties - a glass solid wall was created in its place. The loss of the menagerie was compensated in 1872 by the installation of a 120-meter long marine aquarium .
XX century
Photos of the Crystal Palace in London, many people like to consider. But we continue further. At the beginning of the XX century, the public ceased to be interested in the old park. The final successful episode was the holidays in June 1911 in honor of the wedding to the kingdom of George V. This did not save the company from bankruptcy, so the court decided to sell the palace and park under the hammer.
In 1911, on November 9, three weeks before the auction, Lord Plymouth, the mayor of Cardiff, bought all the property of the company for 230,000 pounds. The Lord Mayor of London organized a public campaign for the nationalization of the park. This man also established a public subscription and bought the park in 1913 in state ownership.
During the First World War, the buildings were the warehouses of the English fleet and training units. In the school of the Crystal Palace, up to 125,000 military men studied in total. In the decrepit building of the palace after the war, John Byrd's radio engineering company, which was a pioneer of mechanical television, housed radio transmitter masts on the grounds of the park. In 1927, Baird broadcast a television signal from London to Glasgow.
In 1936, on November 30, at about 19:00, a center of fire formed in the central transept. Two ministers tried to bring down the flames on their own. Only at 19:59 was the first telephone call to the fire department registered. After 4 minutes, the first calculations appeared on the spot, but it was too late. 438 people tried to extinguish the fire (88 fire brigades), but their efforts were in vain. The building burned out completely by morning. The exact cause of the fire has not been established. Burnt structures of the building were dismantled for scrap.
The territory of the park during the Second World War was divided by economic and military institutions and Byrd's firm - a defense closed facility. In 1940 and 1941, the water towers of Brunel were demolished. The art school (one of the last buildings of Paxton's time) burned down in 1950, on October 24.
All further projects for the revival of the palace or large-scale new buildings were not implemented. Thus, the words of Henry Buckland (the last manager) were confirmed: "There will never be another." In 1990, a private museum of the Crystal Palace was opened in the park.