Crystal Palace, Sydenham, London, ca 1860, by William England
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and plate-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 of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in the Industrial Revolution. Designed by Joseph Paxton, the Great Exhibition building was 1,851 feet long, with an interior height of 128 feet. Because of the recent invention of the cast plate glass method in 1848, which allowed for large sheets of cheap but strong glass, it was at the time the largest amount of glass ever seen in a building and astonished visitors with its clear walls and ceilings that did not require interior lights, thus a "Crystal Palace". After the exhibition, the building was rebuilt in an enlarged form on Penge Common next to Sydenham Hill, an affluent South London suburb full of large villas. It stood there from 1854 until its destruction by fire in 1936.
Size: 2130px × 3233px
Location: London, England
Photo credit: © Archive Farms. Inc / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: /, 19th, archival, black, century, exhibition, exposition, fountain, greenhouse, hall, historic, historical, park, phtl, public, white
