CRYSTAL PALACE

The Crystal Palace, 1851. ©

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The Crystal Palace was a glass and cast iron structure built in London, England for the Great
Exhibition of 1851. The building was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, an architect and gardener, and
revealed breakthroughs in architecture, construction and design. The Crystal Palace, a vast
demountable building was designed for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park, London, was in
many ways crucial in the development of architecture: it was the pinnacle of innovative metal
structure, it revealed the exciting potential of efficient prefabrication, and it was an early
demonstration of the modern doctrine that beauty can exist in the clear expression of materials and
function. Altogether, it was one of the most noteworthy buildings of the nineteenth century.

The idea for a Great Exhibition came from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures,
and Commerce, and was given impetus by Henry Cole, then an assistant keeper in the Public Records
Office. Cole was elected to the society’s council in 1846, and the following year, with others, he
successfully solicited Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to accept the role
of its president. Under Royal Charter, and spurred by the success of French industrial expositions
since 1844, the society held Exhibitions of Art Manufactures from 1847 through 1849.
After visiting the exclusively French exhibition in Paris in 1849, Cole realized that an international
show would inform British industry of progress (and commercial competition) elsewhere in the world.
Prince Albert caught the vision and in January 1850, the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851
was established to expedite a self-financing “large [exhibition] embracing foreign productions.” It was
envisioned as “a new starting-point from which all nations will be able to direct their further
exertions,” but it was at the same time an expression of British nationalism. Britain had led the world
into the Industrial Revolution and the Great Exhibition would provide a vehicle to flaunt her
industrial, military, and economic superiority thereby justifying her colonialist actions.
The show was to have a display area of 700,000 square feet (66,000 square meters), and that was too
large even for the intended venue in the courtyard of Somerset House, so it was decided to locate it in
Hyde Park. The structure had to be as economical as possible, and be built before the exhibition was
scheduled to open on May 1st, 1851. An open competition for the design of a building for the “Great
Exhibition of the Works of All Nations” attracted 245 entries from 233 architects, including 38 from
abroad all within 3 weeks. The Commissioners’ Building Committee liked none of them; besides, it was
unlikely that any could have been completed on time. Having prepared its own plan for a large dome
standing on a brick drum, the committee called for bids. The result was alarming: building materials
alone would have devoured at least half of the available funds of £230,000. Anyway, the design was
generally considered ugly, especially by the architects whose proposals bad been rejected. It was only
after this that Paxton showed his first interest in the project.

Interior view of the Crystal Palace, 1851. ©

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The design
Already a famous gardener at the time, Paxton experimented extensively with glasshouse
construction. Using combinations of prefabricated cast
iron, laminated wood, and standard sized glass sheets,
Paxton created the “ridge-and-furrow” roof design. In
1836 this system was used for the first time in the
“Great Stove” – the largest glass building at the time.
First sketch for the Great Exhibition Building by Sir Joseph
Paxton. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Paxton proceeded to visit Hyde Park, where he quickly
doodled his famous concept drawing of the Palace (the
sketch is now held in the Victoria and Albert Museum).
The drawing included all the basic elements of the
building,
 Part front (left) and part rear (right) view and floor plan of
London’s Crystal Palace. © Wikimedia Commons
Paxton’s design was based on a (10in x 49in) 250mm X 725mm module, the size of the largest glass
sheet available at the time. The modular system consisted of right-angled triangles, mirrored and
multiplied, supported by a grid of cast iron beams and pillars. These basic units were extremely light
and strong and were extended to an incredible length of 564 meters. The design was also influenced by
Paxton’s passion for bio-mimicry; he drew inspiration from the giant leaves of the Victoria Amazonica
water lily whose cross ribs strengthened the main radial ribs. Paxton sketched out his proposal on a
sheet of blotting paper—romantic tradition says it was during a train journey—and through a lucky
meeting with a mutual friend he was able to show it to Cole. The idea was simple: a modular structure
of a single cross section, built from prefabricated metal components, could be repeated ad infinitum to
produce a building of any size.

Paxton promised Cole that he would have detailed designs ready within a fortnight. In fact, they were
completed in nine days and passed to Fox and Henderson (a renowned firm of contractors, engineers,
and ironmasters) on 22 June 1850. By then, the provision of a building was becoming urgent. Paxton’s
proposal had the desirable advantage of rapid construction; moreover, unlike the other schemes, it
could later be demounted to leave Hyde Park relatively undisturbed. The commission accepted it; the
only modification asked for was a vaulted transept so the building could contain without damage the
large elm trees on the site. Construction commenced immediately in Hyde Park. 5000 workers handled
more than 1000 iron columns and 84,000 square meters of glass.

The Crystal Palace, as it was soon dubbed, was a single space, (1,851 feet long and 456 wide) 554m by
136 m, rising by (20-foot) 6-meter increments across flanking tiered galleries to a (66-foot-high) 20-
meter central nave. It was intersected in the middle by a (108-foot-high) 32-meter vaulted transept.
The building covered (19 acres) 7.6 hectares of Hyde Park. A filigree of 330 slender, cast-iron columns
and arcades supported its clear glass walls and roofs and the wrought-iron beams that carried the
galleries, alternately (24 feet) 7.2 meters and (48 feet) 14.4 meters wide.

Due largely to Paxton’s consummate organizational skills, Fox and Henderson accomplished its
construction between September 1850 and January 1851 (5 months). The Birmingham glassmaking
firm of Chance Brothers supplied almost 294,000 panes, which were fixed in a specially designed roof-
glazing system based on economical (49-inch) 1.25-meter wide sheets that determined the module for
the entire design. Building work on-site consisted mostly of assembling the 3,920 tons (3,556 tonnes) of
cast-iron components that came from ninety different foundries throughout Britain, often cast less
than a day before they were fixed. The accuracy obtained through prefabrication and the mechanical
fixing dramatically reduced the proportion of nonproductive labor common to traditional construction
methods. Cast-iron columns were strength-tested, and on-site milling and machine painting included
miles of timber-glazing bars. The building was decorated in red, green, and blue, and the columns
were brightened with yellow stripes. The Crystal Palace established internationally a style and a
standard for exhibition pavilions.

The Great Exhibition opened on 1 May 1851, with more than 13,000 exhibits from around the world.
By the time it closed six months later, over 6.2 million people had visited it. Despite popular insistence
that the building should remain, it was scheduled for dismantling. A consortium bought it and it was,
under Paxton’s supervision, re-erected in a modified form in a park designed by him at Sydenham Hill,
southeast London. Reopened by Queen Victoria in June 1854, the Crystal Palace became a national
center for exhibits of industry, art, architecture, and natural history, all held under the auspices of the
Crystal Palace Company.
In November 1936, the Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire. Only one terrace of the original park now
survives, and even that is under threat. The Crystal Palace Partnership, with representatives of five
London boroughs and private-sector groups, is undertaking a £150 million regeneration scheme for
Crystal Palace Park that includes its “restoration,” a concert platform, modernization of the National
Sports Centre, and a so-called new Crystal Palace on the surviving 12-acre (4.8-hectare) terrace. The
latter, an insensitive proposal for a utilitarian building housing a twenty-screen cinema multiplex
with restaurants, bars, and rooftop parking for a thousand cars, provoked local residents to launch the
Crystal Palace Campaign in May 1997. A challenge to the scheme is being mounted in the High Court
on the grounds that the Crystal Palace Act of 1990 provides that any building on the site should be “in
the style and spirit of the former Crystal Palace.”
 Detail © greatbuildings.com
Queen Victoria wrote in her journal on May 1st 1851:
“This day is one of the greatest and most glorious of our lives… It is a day which makes my heart swell
with thankfulness… The Park presented a wonderful spectacle, crowds streaming through it, –
carriages and troops passing… The Green Park and Hyde Park were one mass of densely crowded
human beings, in the highest good humour… before we neared the Crystal Palace, the sun shone and
gleamed upon the gigantic edifice, upon which the flags of every nation were flying… The sight as we
came to the centre where the steps and chair (on which I did not sit) was placed, facing the beautiful
crystal fountain was magic and impressive. 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 State Opening of The Great

Exhibition in 1851, colour lithograph by Louis Haghe.© Wikimedia Commons

Though new technology drove innovation in Victorian architecture, nostalgia was its keynote. Past
eras were plundered for inspiration. The Great Exhibition of 1851 displayed the end products in a
showcase which was itself a triumph of 19th-century engineering. Paxton’s ingenious design created
an unprecedented exhibition space. The construction, acting as a self-supporting shell, maximized
interior space, and the glass cover enabled daylight. The method of construction was a breakthrough
in technology and design, and paved the way for more sophisticated pre-fabricated design. The Crystal
Palace was lavish with Victorian innovations - iron-frame construction, sheet glass, and integral
heating.

Architects: Joseph Paxton

Location: Hyde Park, London, England, UK
Year : 1851
Year Demolished: 1936
Area: 92000.0 sqm.

The Crystal Palace at Sydenham Hill, 1854. Photo by

Philip Henry Delamotte © Wikimedia Commons.