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Joseph Paxton designed the Crystal Palace in seven days. When it was first built in Hyde Park for the 1851 Great Exhibition it was over 600 yards long and 150 yards wide. At that time glass was unheard-of as a building material. The 2,000 workers who erected it at high speed bolted and welded together 3,300 iron columns, 205 miles of sash-bars and 293,655 panes of glass. With its lofty central transept and colossal glass elevations, it was built to impress.
It had been created for the world to wonder at, as a temple containing the triumphs of Victorian art and industry. The original conception had been Prince Albert's, who was President of the Royal Society of Arts; he believed a showcase of the varied technological and artistic achievements of the many countries of the civilised world would stimulate international trade.
Inside were galleries offering eight miles of display space that was occupied by 14,000 exhibitors from Britain, the United States and most European nations. E F Benson describes a selection of the exhibits in his life of Queen Victoria: 'machinery and oil-yielding palms, stuffed elephants with immense ivory tusks, locomotives, stamps for crushing ores, the pit head of a coal mine, Persian carpets, Kidderminster rugs, porcelain and wax flowers and glass paper weights and bedsteads and blankets'.
Over six million people visited the exhibition between May and October 1851. The emerging middle classes were captivated: here they saw novelties and inventions that would enrich their lives, made possible by the new techniques of mass production.
After the Exhibition, it was decided to move the Crystal Palace to another site, and to turn it into a temple of leisure. For London's millions the Crystal Palace brought opportunities for exciting excursions and days out. If the original building in Hyde Park had been spectacular, it was even more so when it was re-erected in the wooded parkland of Sydenham in south-east London: the original three-storey building was enlarged to five storeys, making it almost half as big again.
It was filled with an abundance of Grecian, Roman, Chinese, Egyptian and other displays, lavish in both size and scope. The grounds were transformed into fantastic gardens with many flower temples, pleasure walks, fountains and lakes; there were statues, urns, busts, temples and miniature palaces to delight the artistic eye and to stimulate civic sensibility. Its impact on the London working man and his family must have been extraordinary: most were used to living in considerable poverty, in cramped tenements and slums where sunlight rarely penetrated.
Brunel constructed water towers three hundred feet high, which held almost half a million gallons of water to serve the complex system of fountains; there were lakes, islands, a maze, a grotto, groves, temples and lawns. It became a paradise of leisure for Londoners, who flocked to enjoy the special displays and exhibitions.
There were firework displays by Messrs Brock that lit up the London sky with flights of 5,000 rockets, celestial cascades and plumes of fire; a fiery Battle of Jutland was played out in the sky before thousands; Blondin walked the high wire and cooked an omelet seventy feet up in the air.
Queen Victoria invited everyone to see her Palace, including the Shah of Persia. Like her subjects, she was delighted by it. The Palace was an unparalleled symbol of the continuing glories and achievements of her reign.
Londoners were shocked in 1936 when the building was destroyed by fire. The deep red corona could be seen in the sky from all over the city. Crowds flocked to watch the spectacle, at once horrified and fascinated. No public building since has approached the Crystal Palace for sheer splendor.
For more details on Victorian Times and to gain an insight to Victorian society, please visit The Victorian Picture Library.
