The Crystal Palace(en.wikipedia.org)

48 pointsby aquadrop7 yıl önce31 comments

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Palace

32 comments

andybak7 yıl önce

I used to walk home through the ruined grounds of this when I was at school. It was fenced off and pretty strange and creepy. Headless statues and vast terraces of stone alcoves. Almost looked like it could be from a game like Journey.

It's now been tidied up and is open to the public as part of the park. I'm glad I got to experience it when it was still strange and mysterious.

There's also an abandoned train station and huge blocked off train tunnel quite near. We used to make up ghost stories about the place.

timthorn7 yıl önce

> I'm glad I got to experience it when it was still strange and mysterious

Yeah, there's something about a raw location that has a much better connection to the history. Bletchley Park today (still a good museum) is almost a theme park when compared to what it was 10 years ago. There are still a few pure historic sites around that haven't had the chance to visitor attraction treatment but almost by definition they're harder to find.

rbirkby7 yıl önce

Except if you go around the rear to TNMOC.

timthorn7 yıl önce

That somewhat reinforces my thesis - 10 years ago you didn't need to go around the rear as there wasn't a fence separating the two.

antihero7 yıl önce

I live basically opposite it.

It's such a great, strange park. Lots of random abandoned follies. I've been mugged there twice but still it feels weirdly safe. It has such a great view at night and feels so desolate and strange especially with the antennas. Going there when there's a good level of fog is excellent.

tetris117 yıl önce

Youve got South Norwood one side and Dulwich on the other. Crystal Palace is right on the cusp of being mugged and stepping on an artisan terrier.

antihero7 yıl önce

It's great fun walking the line :)

pheouk7 yıl önce

Also walked through often on my way to school, and had sports at the NSC regularly, A lovely place most of the time. The hedge maze was always fun as a kid too, but the scale of the terraces and their staircases was always something that seemed larger than life to a 12 year old kid

tyingq7 yıl önce

There's a building in Dallas, Texas called the Infomart that looks like it might have taken inspiration from it: https://cdn.bisnow.net/fit?height=489&type=jpeg&url=https%3A...

Edit: Ah, so not a coincidence...

"The design was modeled after The Crystal Palace, a huge iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park in 19th century Britain"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infomart

heyflyguy7 yıl önce

I came here to post this, I worked there for a long time. Yahoo used to have a huge datacenter there when Yahoo was a big deal in the late nineties.

wdfx7 yıl önce

I live quite close to what is now crystal palace park. I would have loved to have seen the building, even in ruins. It boggles my mind how the Victorians even managed to relocate the entire structure from Hyde park, especially given that the crystal palace park site is on the top of a massive hill (in fact one of the highest points in greater London). The park now is a nice place to go walking and hang out in the summer. There's a natural bowl area which would be great for concerts if only the local council can get their act together to refurbish the stage.

vidarh7 yıl önce

There's an Italian restaurant (Pizza at the Palace) at the Crystal Palace triangle that has a series of fantastic pictures and artworks of the Crystal Palace, including pictures of the fire itself, on its walls.

wdfx7 yıl önce

I know it well. I have several old prints/lithographs and original photos of the palace hanging at home too :)

ljm7 yıl önce

Same here, taking a trip through the dinosaur park to the train station makes for a lovely commute when the weather’s nice.

dang7 yıl önce

The Crystal Place became a symbol in 19th century Russian literature. These two articles are by a specialist who adds "I live in Crystal Palace and have been reading up on the palace itself and the area, exploring the ruins and generally gaining a new perspective."

The socialist utopian Chernyshevsky ("What is to be done?") celebrated it as a triumph of progress and modernity:

http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/04/20/crystal-palace-russia...

Dostoevsky visited it and hated it, and used it for one of his most famous anti-utopian invectives:

http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/04/22/the-crystal-palace-in...

als07 yıl önce

I've been to the ruins, which are atop a lovely park. It's a real shame that it never got rebuilt.

ginko7 yıl önce

In a similar vein in Vienna there was also the Rotunde built for the Vienna World Fair of 1873 which burned down in 1937.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotunde

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotunde_(Wien)

twic7 yıl önce

Reminds me also of the San Francisco World's Fair of 1915, which included some cyclopean structures which are mostly gone today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u47URbxlVIg

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/61495/12-photos-1915-san...

As a comment on the video testifies, the construction and then obliteration of such an enormous site is popular fodder for Cultural Layer type conspiracy theorists.

jbay8087 yıl önce

Sometimes I feel like the Victorian era was bad fiction. Who would believe this?

* Designed and costed in two weeks * Eight months from design acceptance to building completion *100% modular; reassembled into a different building after the event

jdsully7 yıl önce

I can gurantee there was no environmental impact assessment, comment period for local residents, nor mandatory safety training, rest periods, or other accommodations for the workers.

Whether or not these things are a net positive they do serve to slow things down dramatically.

Also without safety glass that place would have posed a massive safety hazard of falling glass shards.

aquadrop7 yıl önce

There was kind of environmental review. At least there was environmental opposition to building it in the park and they added dome to the building so it could fit old elm trees completely inside the building and so trees were saved.

[deleted]7 yıl önce

lifeisstillgood7 yıl önce

Can I urge people interested in this to hunt down Bill Bryson reading his own book "At Home" - the first chapter is mostly the crystal palace history and is fascinating

Animats7 yıl önce

If you want to walk through the Crystal Palace, a virtual copy is being constructed in Second Life by the city-state of New Babbage. Opening next spring.

08987 yıl önce

People still play Second Life?

Animats7 yıl önce

Yes. If it were on Steam, it would rank about even with GTA V Online. Average online users, all in the same world, is in the 35,000-50,000 range.

aquadrop7 yıl önce

I think it's a great read that shows how projects (including IT) can be effective if you find right approach for the task.

nathancahill7 yıl önce

Not to be confused with Crystal Palace FC.

andybak7 yıl önce

Always used to bother me that the football grounds weren't actually in Crystal Palace. It was bloody miles from Selhurst Park to real thing!

(actually - now I think about it why was the football ground called Selhurst Park? It was in Thornton Heath!)

wdfx7 yıl önce

It's actually in Selhurst. Though nowadays with the (sub)urban sprawled it's hard to delineate where exactly Norwood, Selhurst and the 'Heath meet or overlap.

Graham247 yıl önce

I went to Selhurst last season, I was thinking of visit the Crystal Palace, but didn't have time. Rather wish I had now.

jonwinstanley7 yıl önce

Agreed. The football club was named after this building.