~Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace was een door kassenbouwer
Joseph Paxton ontworpen gebouw voor de
wereldtentoonstelling van 1851 in Hyde Park (Londen).
Het was gebouwd in Victoriaanse stijl en bestond uit hout,
gietijzer en glassegmenten (84.000 m²).
Het Crystal Palace was hierdoor vrijwel doorzichtig.
Het had de afmetingen van 564 bij 124 m en een totaal
oppervlakte van 92.000 m². Het hoogste
punt bedroeg 33 m. De constructie was mogelijk
gemaakt door de industriële revolutie en de
vooruitgang in de metaalproductie.

Na de wereldtentoonstelling werd het gehele gebouw
verplaatst naar Sydenham Hill en uitgebreid
(615 bij 150 m). Het originele Crystal Palace kostte
£ 79.800 en werd door 2000 arbeiders in acht maanden
tijd gebouwd, echter, de herbouw en uitbreiding
kostte £1.300.000. In 1860 brandde een deel van
het gebouw af en op 30 november 1936 brandde
het volledig uit. Crystal Palace is nooit herbouwd.

The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass
building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England,
to house the Great Exhibition of 1851.
More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world
gathered in the Palace's 990,000 square feet
(92,000 m²) of exhibition space to display examples of
the latest technology developed in the Industria Revolution.
Designed by Joseph Paxton, the Great Exhibition
building was 1,851 feet (564 m) long,
with an interior height of 108 feet (33 m).

After the exhibition, the building was moved to a
new park in a high, healthy and affluent area of
London called Sydenham Hill, an area not much
changed today from the well-heeled suburb full of large
villas that it was during its Victorian heyday.
The Crystal Palace was enlarged and stood in the
area from 1854 to 1936, when it was destroyed by fire.
It attracted many thousands of visitors from all levels
of society. The name Crystal Palace
(the satirical magazine Punch usually gets the credit
for coining the phrase) was later used to denote this
area of south London and the park that surrounds the site,
home of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

Although the iron and glass of the Crystal Palace
are long gone, the Crystal Palace Park is once again a
music center of London and still retains many original
and recreated features and elements, including
the "Saurians" (dinosaurs) and "coloured fire"
(fireworks) lamented as forever lost 70 years ago.
In 2003, the original dinosaur park was reopened to the
public after a £4 million restoration.
And the modern fireworks displays that take place
regularly in the park echo the famous Brock's fireworks
displays that ran from 1865 until 1936.

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