100-453: The 1911 Festival of Empire was the biggest single event held at The Crystal Palace in London since its opening. It opened on 12 May and was one of the events to celebrate the coronation of King George V . The original intention had been that Edward VII would open it in 1910, however, this was postponed after his death shortly before the planned opening day. The Festival contained
200-604: A cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park , London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in its 990,000-square-foot (92,000 m ) exhibition space to display examples of technology developed in the Industrial Revolution . Designed by Joseph Paxton ,
300-462: A curtain wall system that allowed the hanging of vertical bays of glass from cantilevered beams. The Lily House was built specifically to house the Victoria amazonica waterlily which had recently been discovered by European botanists; the first specimen to reach England was originally kept at Kew Gardens , but it did not do well. Paxton's reputation as a gardener was so high by that time that he
400-574: A South African Diamond Mine and an Indian Tea Plantation, photos of which are included below. There was also "a Jamaican sugar plantation, an Australian sheep farm" and "a jungle 'well stocked with wild beasts'". A pageant, organised by 'Master of the Pageants' Frank Lascelles , dramatising the history of London, England and the Empire was held. The first performance of the pageant was on 8 June 1911; in four parts, performed on separate days, it celebrated
500-506: A building. It astonished visitors with its clear walls and ceilings that did not require interior lights. It has been suggested that the name of the building resulted from a piece penned by the playwright Douglas Jerrold , who in July 1850 wrote in the satirical magazine Punch about the forthcoming Great Exhibition, referring to a "palace of very crystal". After the exhibition, the Palace
600-478: A comparable size. His submission was budgeted at a remarkably low £85,800. By comparison, this was about 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 times more than the Great Stove at Chatsworth but it was only 28% of the estimated cost of Turner's design, and it promised a building which, with a footprint of over 770,000 square feet (18 acres; 7.2 ha), would cover roughly 25 times the ground area of its progenitor. Impressed by
700-410: A controversial issue that had been a major sticking point for the vocal anti-exhibition lobby. Paxton's modular, hierarchical design reflected his practical brilliance as a designer and problem-solver. It incorporated many breakthroughs, offered practical advantages that no conventional building of that era could match and, above all, it embodied the spirit of British innovation and industrial might that
800-555: A debt borne by the Festival's private backers not the Crystal Palace Company. Meanwhile, that Company had been in receivership and a date for the auction of the site had been set for 28 November. The Festival might well have been the last dramatic event at the site, before the land was parcelled up and sold off for housing. Fortunately, Lord Plymouth arranged a share offer, including £240,000 from him, to save
900-617: A description of the dinosaurs was entitled: 'Geology and Inhabitants of the Ancient World. Described by Richard Owen , FRS. The animals constructed by B.W. Hawkins , FGS'. In the central transept was the 4,000-piece Grand Orchestra built around the 4,500-pipe Great Organ. There was a concert room with over 4,000 seats that hosted successful Handel Festivals for many years and August Manns's Crystal Palace Concerts from 1855 until 1901. The performance spaces hosted concerts, exhibits, and public entertainment. Many famous people visited
1000-551: A display of landscapes and exhibits from the British Empire, mainly the dominion countries, to encourage emigration to those nations; and it contained a large scale pageant dramatising British history. It was described at the time as 'a social gathering of the British family' encouraging the 'firmer welding of those invisible bonds which hold together the greatest empire the world has ever known'. It has since been described as
1100-419: A grid 77 modules long by 19 modules wide. As each module was self-supporting, Paxton was able to leave out modules in some areas, creating larger square or rectangular spaces within the building to accommodate larger exhibits. On the lower level, these larger spaces were covered by the floor above, and on the upper level by longer spans of roofing, but the dimensions of these larger spaces were always multiples of
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#17327718258051200-521: A grid of cast iron beams, which was held up on slim cast iron pillars. The resulting cube, with a floor area of 24 feet (7.3 m) by 24 feet (7.3 m), formed the basic structural module of the building. By multiplying these modules into a grid, the structure could be extended virtually indefinitely. In its original form, the ground level of the Crystal Palace (in plan) measured 1,848 feet (563 m) by 456 feet (139 m), which equates to
1300-620: A key inspiration. Paxton left his meeting with Cole on 9 June 1850 fired with enthusiasm. He immediately went to Hyde Park, where he walked the site earmarked for the Exhibition. Two days later on 11 June, while attending a board meeting of the Midland Railway , Paxton made his original concept drawing, which he doodled onto a sheet of pink blotting paper . This rough sketch (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum ) incorporated all
1400-490: A major gamble for Paxton, but circumstances were in his favour: he enjoyed a stellar reputation as a garden designer and builder, he was confident that his design was perfectly suited to the brief, and the commission was under pressure to choose a design and get it built, with the exhibition opening less than a year away. In the event, Paxton's design fulfilled and surpassed all the requirements, and it proved to be vastly faster and cheaper to build than any other form of building of
1500-472: A problem with sparrows becoming a nuisance, and shooting was out of the question inside a glass building. Queen Victoria mentioned this problem to the Duke of Wellington , who offered the solution, " Sparrowhawks , Ma'am". Paxton was acclaimed worldwide for his achievement and was knighted by Queen Victoria in recognition of his work. The project was engineered by William Cubitt ; Paxton's construction partner
1600-438: A property named Penge Place, which had been excised from Penge Common at the top of Sydenham Hill . The reconstruction of the Crystal Palace began on Sydenham Hill in 1852. The new building, while incorporating most of the constructional parts of the original one at Hyde Park, was so completely different in form as to be properly considered a quite different structure – a ' Beaux-arts ' form in glass and metal. The main gallery
1700-520: A reasonable number of bays had been completed, the columns for the upper floor were erected (longer shear-legs were used for this, but the operation was essentially the same as for the ground floor). Once the ground floor structure was complete, the final assembly of the upper floor followed rapidly. For the glazing, Paxton used larger versions of machines he had originally devised for the Great Stove at Chatsworth, installing on-site production line systems, powered by steam engines, that dressed and finished
1800-414: A self-supporting shell standing on slim iron columns, with no internal structural walls whatsoever. Because it was covered almost entirely in glass, it also needed no artificial lighting during the day, thereby reducing the exhibition's running costs. Full-size elm trees growing in the park were enclosed within the central exhibition hall near the 27-foot (8 m) tall Crystal Fountain. However this caused
1900-540: A standby design of its own, for a brick building in the rundbogenstil (round-arch style) by Donaldson, featuring a sheet-iron dome designed by Tunnel, but it was widely criticized and ridiculed when it was published in the newspapers. Adding to the committee's woes, the site for the exhibition was still not confirmed. The preferred site was in Hyde Park, adjacent to Princes Gate near Pennington Road, but other sites considered included Wormwood Scrubs , Battersea Park ,
2000-600: A week. Thanks to the simplicity of Paxton's design and the combined efficiency of the building contractor and their suppliers, the entire structure was assembled with extraordinary speed: a team of 80 men could fix more than 18,000 panes of sheet glass in a week, and the building was completed and ready to receive exhibits in just five months. According to a study by John Gardner of Anglia Ruskin University , published in The International Journal for
2100-806: Is not known. The event made a surplus of £186,000 (equivalent to £25,720,000), money which was used to found the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum in South Kensington . The Crystal Palace had the first major installation of public toilets , the Retiring Rooms , in which sanitary engineer George Jennings installed his "Monkey Closet" flushing lavatory (initially just for men but later catering for women also). During
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#17327718258052200-488: Is regarded as a forerunner of the British Empire Games (now Commonwealth Games ), held from 1930 . Famous competitors included Stanley Vivian Bacon (from Great Britain ), Harold Hardwick (from Australia ), Malcolm Champion (from New Zealand ), George Hodgson and John Lindsay Tait (both from Canada ). The limited event schedule and four-nation format came in for criticism by the correspondent in
2300-538: Is still in use as Crystal Palace , while the only remains of the High Level station are the subway under the Parade with its Italian mosaic roofing, a Grade II* listed building . The South Gate is served by Penge West railway station . For some time this station was on an atmospheric railway . This is often confused with a 550-metre pneumatic passenger railway which was exhibited at the Crystal Palace in 1864, which
2400-734: The Auckland Star , who described it as not worthy of the title of Empire. Results source. The team championship in athletics was decided on a points basis, with the countries' finishing position in each race totalling up a combined score. Canada won with the lowest score with eight points, having topped the podium in three of the five events, and was awarded the Inter-Empire trophy by Lord Lonsdale . The United Kingdom ended with nine points and Australasia were third with 13 points. The Australasia team combined New Zealand and Victoria athletes. Three scratch competitions were held alongside
2500-561: The Isle of Dogs , Victoria Park , and Regent's Park . Opponents of the scheme lobbied strenuously against the use of Hyde Park (and they were strongly supported by The Times ). The most outspoken critic was Charles Sibthorp ; he denounced the exhibition as "one of the greatest humbugs, frauds and absurdities ever known," and his trenchant opposition to both the exhibition and its building continued even after it had closed. At this point, renowned gardener Joseph Paxton became interested in
2600-504: The Oxfordshire village of Sibford Gower with the surname of Stevens, the son of Rev. Edward Thomas Stevens, the village priest. He was educated at the village school before attending Keble College, Oxford , where he became the most notable member of Oxford's dramatic society. After leaving the university without a degree, he worked as an actor in London between 1904 and 1906 at Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree 's His Majesty's theatre. It
2700-462: The Palm House, Kew Gardens , and the other by French architect Hector Horeau but despite the great number of submissions, the committee rejected them all. Turner was furious at the rejection and reportedly badgered the commissioners for months afterwards, seeking compensation, but at an estimated £300,000, his design (like Horeau's) was too expensive. As a last resort, the committee came up with
2800-490: The 'magnificence, glory and honour of the Empire and the Mother Country'. Music was provided for The Pageant of London by 20 composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams , Gustav Holst , Frank Bridge , Cecil Forsyth , Henry Balfour Gardiner , Edward German and Haydn Wood . This was performed by a military band of 50 players and a chorus of 500 voices, directed by W.H. Bell . The best architects and designers of
2900-465: The 'ultimate imperialist propaganda showcase'. Robert George Windsor-Clive , first Earl of Plymouth, Conservative government minister managed and promoted the Festival as a sub contracted event; it was nothing to do with the Crystal Palace company which was in receivership at the time. The 1911 Festival of Empire was one of many imperial events staged in the early twentieth century in Britain and around
3000-420: The 1911 Festival of Empire claimed to be an opportunity to admire and seek amusement in "the charms, the wealth and the wonders of the Empire that girdles the globe" – as written in the official flyer – in recent years questions around the mode of ethics in which it showcased the "dominions" have been questioned. It was an event promoting “Firmer welding of invisible bonds which hold together the greatest empire in
3100-406: The Crystal Palace especially during its early years, including the likes of Emma Darwin , the wife of Charles Darwin who noted in her diary on 10 June 1854, "Opening Crystal Pal". Frank Lascelles (pageant master) Frank William Thomas Charles Lascelles (30 July 1875 – 23 May 1934) was a British pageant master and artist, known as the "man who staged the Empire." Lascelles was born in
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3200-613: The Empire, following the 1909 Imperial International Exhibition at London's White City and running parallel to the 1911 Delhi Durbar in India and following the 1895 African Exhibition and 1905 Colonial and Indian Exhibition which also took place in Crystal Palace Park. The 1911 Festival of Empire was staged at The Crystal Palace at Sydenham Hill and had similar characteristics to the Great Exhibition, for which
3300-473: The Great Exhibition building was 1,851 feet (564 m) long, with an interior height of 128 feet (39 m), and was three times the size of St Paul's Cathedral . The 60,000 panes of glass were manufactured by the Chance Brothers . The 990,000-square-foot building with its 128-foot-high ceiling was completed in thirty-nine weeks. The Crystal Palace boasted the greatest area of glass ever seen in
3400-447: The Great Exhibition was intended to celebrate. The geometry of the Crystal Palace was a classic example of the concept of form following manufacturer's limitations: the shape and size of the whole building was directly based around the size of the panes of glass made by the supplier, Chance Brothers of Smethwick . These were the largest available at the time, measuring 10 inches (25 cm) wide by 49 inches (120 cm) long. Because
3500-543: The History of Engineering & Technology, the speed of the erection work was thanks to the use, for the first time, of nuts and bolts made to what was later to be known as the British Standard Whitworth (BSW), when up to that time nuts and bolts were made individually, and could not be interchanged. When completed, the Crystal Palace provided an unrivalled space for exhibits, since it was essentially
3600-698: The King and other members of the royal family. It was also considered a great organisational challenge. The children were chosen by ballot from London schools of all backgrounds. As part of the festival, an Inter-Empire sports championship was held in which teams from Australasia (a combined team from Australia and New Zealand), Canada, South Africa , and the United Kingdom competed in five athletics events (100 yards, 220 yards, 880 yards, 1 mile and 120 yards hurdles), two swimming events (100 yards and 1 mile), heavyweight boxing and middleweight wrestling. This
3700-467: The act of colonisation. As written in 'Exhibiting the Empire: Cultures of Display', the visitors "were encouraged to compare themselves with the peoples on display and note their progress from the relatively lowly states of the human race". 51°25′16″N 0°04′19″W / 51.421°N 0.072°W / 51.421; -0.072 The Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was
3800-451: The apex of the shear, the navvies hoisted the columns, girders and other parts into place. As soon as two adjacent columns had been erected, a girder was hoisted into place between them and bolted onto the connectors. The columns were erected in opposite pairs, then two more girders were connected to form a self-supporting square—this was the basic frame of each module. The shears would then be moved along and an adjoining bay constructed. When
3900-420: The basic 24 feet (7.3 m) by 24 feet (7.3 m) grid unit. The modules were also strong enough to be stacked vertically, enabling Paxton to add an upper floor that nearly doubled the amount of available exhibition space. The first floor galleries were double the height of the ground floor galleries below, and the Crystal Palace could theoretically have accommodated a full second-floor gallery, but this space
4000-450: The basic features of the finished building, and it is a mark of Paxton's ingenuity and industriousness that detailed plans, calculations and costings were ready to submit in less than two weeks. (The statue of Albert, Prince Consort , in Perth, Scotland , was sculpted with the subject holding a plan of the Crystal Palace. The statue was unveiled by Queen Victoria in 1864. ) The project was
4100-503: The building parts. These included a machine that mechanically grooved the wooden window sash bars and a painting machine that automatically dipped the parts in paint and then passed them through a series of rotating brushes to remove the excess. The last major components to be put into place were the 16 semi-circular ribs of the vaulted transept, which were the only major structural parts that were made of wood. These were raised into position as eight pairs, and all were fixed into place within
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4200-417: The cast iron columns, which also had an ingenious dual function: each was cast with a hollow core, allowing it to double as a concealed down-pipe that carried the storm-water down into the drains beneath the building. One of the few issues Paxton could not completely solve was leaks—when completed, rain was found to be leaking into the huge building in over a thousand places. The leaks were sealed with putty, but
4300-515: The championships proper: a 3/4-mile race, a 300-yard race and a two-mile team race. Ron Opie ran in both sprints as his teammate, William A. Woodger, took ill before the event and could not compete. By the time it closed in October 1911, four to five million people had visited the Festival of Empire, including one million to see the Pageant. However, it clocked up a massive loss of £250,000 –
4400-459: The colonies, especially in the way that colonised peoples were depicted. The colonial exhibits familiarised British men and women with Britain's "newly acquired and distant outpost". Metaphorically, it took British men and women to places they had never seen and, in all likelihood, would never see, as one observer enthused "the East Indian exhibits had the effect of impressing every visitor with
4500-497: The day were also engaged in the orchestration of the Pageant, such as Edward Poynter and Aston Webb. The Pageant was so successful that performances were extended from July, when they were due to end, to 2 September, and a number of days were lost or spoilt due to bad weather. "The King's Day with the Children" was arranged as part of the Festival for 100,000 children to come to enjoy the Palace and Festival events on one day and meet
4600-444: The design and construction of the exhibition building, comprising accomplished engineers Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Robert Stephenson , renowned architects Charles Barry and Thomas Leverton Donaldson , and chaired by William Cubitt . By 15 March 1850 they were ready to invite submissions which had to conform to several key specifications: the building had to be temporary, simple, as cheap as possible, and economical to build within
4700-460: The development of powered cranes ; the raising of the columns was done manually using shear legs (or shears), a simple crane mechanism. These consisted of two strong poles which were set several meters apart at the base and then lashed together at the top to form a triangle; this was stabilized and kept vertical by guy ropes fixed to the apex, stretched taut and tied to stakes driven into the ground some distance away. Using pulleys and ropes hung from
4800-723: The eastern portion in Beckenham, Kent. When built, most of the buildings were in the County of Surrey, as were the majority of grounds, but in 1899 the county boundary was moved, transferring the entire site to Penge Urban District in Kent. The site is now within the Crystal Palace & Anerley Ward of the London Borough of Bromley . Two railway stations were opened to serve the permanent exhibition: The Low Level station
4900-455: The entire building was scaled around those dimensions, it meant that nearly the whole outer surface could be glazed using hundreds of thousands of identical panes, thereby drastically reducing both their production cost and the time needed to install them. The original Hyde Park building was essentially a vast, flat-roofed rectangular hall. A huge open gallery ran along the main axis, with wings extending down either side. The main exhibition space
5000-414: The exhibition, 827,280 visitors each paid one penny to use them. It is often suggested that the euphemism " spending a penny " originated at the exhibition, but the phrase is more likely to date from the 1890s when public lavatories, fitted with penny-coin-operated locks, were first established by British local authorities. The Great Exhibition closed on 15 October 1851. The life of the Great Exhibition
5100-409: The form of a long triangular prism, which made it both extremely light and very strong, and meant it could be built with the minimum amount of materials. Paxton set the dimensions of this prism by using the length of single pane of glass (49 inches (120 cm)) as the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle, thereby creating a triangle with a length-to-height ratio of 2.5:1, whose base (adjacent side)
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#17327718258055200-601: The former Empire. He sculpted a memorial to his mother in the church at Sibford Gower, as well as painting a Roll of Honour. He also contributed prose and verse to periodicals. In 1932 the Earl of Darnley compiled Our Modern Orpheus , a volume of essays paying tribute to Lascelles. Lascelles was always anxious to hide his humble origins. He assumed the title "Lord of the Manor" in Sibford Gower , Oxfordshire, where he devised
5300-514: The home country and the empire. France was the largest foreign contributor. The exhibits were grouped into four main categories—Raw Materials, Machinery, Manufacturers and Fine Arts. The exhibits ranged from the Koh-i-Noor diamond, Sèvres porcelain , and music organs to a massive hydraulic press, and a fire engine. There was also a 27-foot tall Crystal Fountain. In the first week, the prices were £1; they were then reduced to five shillings for
5400-470: The home-keeping Londoner been afforded the opportunity of realising... the varied aspect of different parts of the Empire". Present day critics question the 1911 Festival of Empire, and other such colonial events, regarding their depiction of the colonies and colonised people. This has been critically examined in relation to the 1851 Great Exhibition and the way in which it 'othered' colonised ethnic groups to strengthen British national identity. Although
5500-698: The importance to such possessions of Great Britain". The buildings of the 1911 Festival of Empire were linked by an electric tramway called the 'All-Red Route' on which open-sided cars took visitors on a circular tour of the 'dominions' with typical scenery of each country. There were displays of so-called "natives at work", including African tribesmen, Malay people constructing houses and Maori villagers. These were people invited to London to act out scenes from their life and work in mocked up environments. Most Festival visitors would know little or nothing of such people and would not have seen such demonstrations. Some scenes included mannequins to represent some of
5600-407: The inaccurate representation of people from the " Orient ", the continent of Africa and Oceania. The use of exhibitions where "human models were arranged into visual narratives that Latham deemed representative of their ethnic traits", promoted and reinforced ideas of what it looked like to be from Africa or India, and these people were commonly described as primitives and cannibals being "saved" by
5700-472: The interior and grounds of the building. Within two years the rebuilt Crystal Palace was complete, and on 10 June 1854, Queen Victoria again performed an opening ceremony, in the presence of 40,000 guests. Several localities claim to be the area to which the building was moved. The street address of the Crystal Palace was Sydenham (SE26) after 1917, but the actual building and parklands were mostly in Penge with
5800-536: The light coming into the building, and acted as a primitive evaporative cooling system when water was sprayed onto them. The other part of the solution was Paxton's ingenious ventilation system. Each of the modules that formed the outer walls of the building was fitted with a prefabricated set of louvres that could be opened and closed using a gear mechanism, allowing hot stale air to escape. The flooring consisted of boards 22 centimetres (8.7 in) wide which were spaced about 1 centimetre (0.39 in) apart; together with
5900-427: The louvres, this formed an effective passive air-conditioning system. Because of the pressure differential, the hot air escaping from the louvres generated a constant airflow that drew cooler air up through the gaps in the floor. The floor too had a dual function: the gaps between the boards acted as a grating that allowed dust and small pieces of refuse to fall or be swept through them onto the ground beneath, where it
6000-412: The low bid for the construction contract submitted by the civil engineering contractor Fox, Henderson and Co , the commission accepted the scheme and gave its public endorsement to Paxton's design in July 1850. He was exultant but now had less than eight months to finalize his plans, manufacture the parts and erect the building in time for the exhibition's opening, which was scheduled for 1 May 1851. Paxton
6100-628: The name of Tehonikonraka, "the man of infinite resource". In 1909 he Master of Pageantry at the celebration of the opening of the Union Parliament of South Africa in Cape Town . The following year he organised the Pageant of London, performed by a cast of 15,000. In 1912 Lascelles was Master of the Pageant at the Coronation Durbar at Calcutta with the participation of over 300,000 Indians and British Army troops. In 1923 he
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#17327718258056200-449: The next three weeks, a price which still effectively limited entrance to middle-class and aristocratic visitors. The working classes finally came to the exhibition on 26 May, when weekday prices were reduced to one shilling (although the price was two shillings and sixpence on Fridays, and still five shillings on Saturdays). Over six million admissions were counted at the toll-gates, although the proportion which were repeat/returning visitors
6300-508: The palace was initially built, in that it displayed an array of products and exhibits from countries around the world and promoted a western industrial culture and pro-Empire view of the world. The 1911 Festival of Empire was a considerable logistical exercise and it exploited much of the latest technology of the time to create a simulation of the landscapes around the British Empire for the British public to experience on home ground. This involved masses of painted canvas and re-landscaped parts of
6400-403: The park. At the 1911 Festival of Empire, exhibitions of products from the countries of the Empire were displayed in three-quarter size models of their Parliamentary buildings erected in the grounds, which were: The buildings were constructed of timber and plaster as they were meant to be temporary. They were linked by an electric tramway called the 'All-Red Route' on which open-sided cars took
6500-444: The parts could be mass-produced in large numbers, and many parts served multiple functions, further reducing both the number of parts needed and their overall cost. Because of its comparatively low weight, the Crystal Palace required no heavy masonry for supporting walls or foundations. The relatively light concrete footings on which it stood could be left in the ground once the building was removed (they remain in place today just beneath
6600-401: The people of those colonies, seen by critics today as reinforcing notions of primitivism. The route is shown in red on the map; the colour red and pink were used to denote the British Empire and its dominions on maps at that time. Bridges over small lakes represented sea voyages between the countries. Some of the cars may be seen in pictures included on this page. Scenes along the route included
6700-423: The pioneering public gardens at Birkenhead Park which directly influenced the design of New York's Central Park . At Chatsworth, he had experimented extensively with glasshouse construction, developing many novel techniques for modular construction, using combinations of standard-sized sheets of glass, laminated wood , and prefabricated cast iron. The "Great Stove" (or conservatory) at Chatsworth (built in 1836)
6800-440: The positions for the cast iron columns; these points were then set precisely by theodolite measurements. Then the concrete foundations were poured, and the base plates for the columns were set into them. Once the foundations were in place, the erection of the modules proceeded rapidly. Connector brackets were attached to the top of each column before erection, and these were then hoisted into position. The project took place before
6900-411: The project, and with the enthusiastic backing of commission member Henry Cole , he decided to submit his own design. At this time, Paxton was chiefly known for his celebrated career as the head gardener for the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth House . By 1850, Paxton had become a preeminent figure in British horticulture and had also earned great renown as a freelance garden designer; his works included
7000-410: The relatively poor quality of the sealant materials available at that time meant that the problem was never totally overcome. To maintain a comfortable temperature inside such a large glass building was another major challenge, because the Great Exhibition took place decades before the introduction of electricity and air-conditioning. Glasshouses rely on the fact that they accumulate and retain heat from
7100-401: The roof of the original Hyde Park structure had a horizontal profile, so heavy rain posed a potentially serious safety hazard. Because normal cast glass is brittle and has low tensile strength, there was a risk that the weight of any excess water build-up on the roof might have caused panes to shatter, showering shards of glass onto the patrons, ruining the valuable exhibits beneath, and weakening
7200-443: The roofing. Once completed, the channels acted both as the joists that supported the roof sections, and as guttering—a patented design now widely known as a " Paxton gutter ". These gutters conducted the rainwater to the ends of each furrow, where they emptied into the larger main gutters, which were set at right angles to the smaller gutters, along the top of the main horizontal roof beams. These main gutters drained at either end into
7300-477: The short time remaining before the exhibition opening, which had already been scheduled for 1 May 1851. Within three weeks, the committee had received some 245 entries, including 38 international submissions from Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hanover , Switzerland, Brunswick , Hamburg and France . Two designs, both in iron and glass, were singled out for praise—one by Richard Turner , co-designer of
7400-701: The site, home of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre , which was previously a football stadium that hosted the FA Cup Final between 1895 and 1914. Crystal Palace F.C. were founded at the site and played at the Cup Final venue in their early years. The park still contains Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins 's Crystal Palace Dinosaurs which date back to 1854. The huge, modular, iron, wood and glass, structure
7500-544: The site. The event was greatly praised by the newspapers of the day, impressed by its sheer scale and ambition. The Globe newspaper reported in May, 1911, "Nothing like this Festival has been attempted by any nation". The Pall Mall Gazette opined that the grounds were transformed, "Aladin-like into a glittering group of white pavilions, like a cluster of snowy peaks recast in molds of beauty and geographical significance". The Daily Telegraph reported, "never before... has
7600-415: The structure. Paxton's ridge-and-furrow roof was designed to shed water very effectively. Rain ran off the angled glass roof panes into U-shaped timber channels which ran the length of each roof section at the bottom of the 'furrow'. These channels were ingeniously multifunctional. During construction, they served as the rails that supported and guided the trolleys on which the glaziers sat as they installed
7700-439: The sun, but such heat buildup would have been a major problem for the exhibition. This would have been exacerbated by the heat produced by the thousands of people who would be in the building at any given time. Paxton solved this with two clever strategies. One was to install external canvas shade-cloths that were stretched across the roof ridges. These served multiple functions: they reduced heat transmission, moderated and softened
7800-463: The surface of the site). The modules could be erected as quickly as the parts could reach the site—some sections were standing within eighteen hours of leaving the factory—and since each unit was self-supporting, workers were able to assemble much of the building section-by-section, without having to wait for other parts to be finished. Fox, Henderson and Co took possession of the site in July 1850, and erected wooden hoardings which were constructed using
7900-481: The surrounding grounds, and two large transepts were added at either end of the main gallery. It was modified and enlarged so much that it extended beyond the boundary of Penge Place, which was also the boundary between Surrey and Kent . The reconstruction was recorded for posterity by Philip Henry Delamotte , and his photographs were widely disseminated in his published works. The Crystal Palace Company also commissioned Negretti and Zambra to produce stereographs of
8000-406: The timber that later became the floorboards of the finished building. More than 5,000 navvies worked on the building during its construction, with up to 2,000 on site at one time during the peak building phase. More than 1,000 iron columns supported 2,224 trellis girders and 30 miles of guttering, comprising 4,000 tons of iron in all. Firstly stakes were driven into the ground to roughly mark out
8100-447: The visitor on a circular tour of the dominions with typical scenery of each country around the buildings listed above. There were also many other exhibits within the Palace itself. In all, there were 300 ornate buildings constructed by 7,000 workers, one and half miles of track line laid, a mix of stuffed wild animals and real ones (1,000 real wild Australian rabbits and many Newfoundland fish). Leolyn G Hart, theatre designer, oversaw
8200-472: The whole construction, engaging over 100 painters. The panorama building was adapted into an Indian pavilion, which included displays about Indian history and daily life and an exhibition of new Bengal art works curated by the India Society. It also included an Irish cottage village and an attraction named 'Empire Caves'. Present day critics would say that exoticism played an integral role in simulating
8300-425: The world” , yet other accounts recognise that there were underlying tensions and antipathies and that the festival did little to bridge the gap between the classes. The 1911 Festival of Empire, and other such events at the Crystal Palace, served to both integrate and segregate as it reflected and reinforced hierarchies not only within British society, but also served as a facilitator to the upholding of primitivism and
8400-594: The year of re-opening, 18 handbooks were published in the Crystal Palace Library by Bradbury and Evans as guides to the new installations. Many of these were written by the specialists involved in creating and curating the new displays. So the 1854 guide to the Egyptian Court, destroyed in the 1866 fire, was entitled: 'The Egyptian Court in the Crystal Palace. Described by Owen Jones, architect, and Joseph Bonomi , sculptor'. That which included
8500-464: Was 135 feet (41 m) high, with 772,784 square feet (71,794.0 m ) on the ground floor alone. The Great Exhibition was opened on 1 May 1851 by Queen Victoria. It was the first of the World's fair exhibitions of culture and industry. There were some 100,000 objects, displayed along more than ten miles, by over 15,000 contributors. Britain occupied half the display space inside with exhibits from
8600-452: Was 4 feet (1.2 m) long. By mirroring this triangle he obtained the 8-foot-wide (2.4 m) gables that formed the vertical faces at either end of the prism, each of which was 24 feet (7.3 m) long. With this arrangement, Paxton could glaze the entire roof surface with identical panes that did not need to be trimmed. Paxton placed three of these 8 feet (2.4 m) by 24 feet (7.3 m) roof units side-by-side, horizontally supported by
8700-828: Was Master of the Harrow Pageant and the following year Master of the Bristol Pageant (Cradle of the Empire) and the Pageant of Empire at the British Empire Exhibition . Lascelles' imperial triumphs earned him the epithet "the man who staged the empire". He was also a sculptor, and among his subjects were the Prince of Wales , the Duke of Connaught , Earl Grey and the Aga Khan . Several of his sculptures are displayed in prominent positions across
8800-460: Was able to design and build the largest glass structure yet created, from scratch, in less than a year, and complete it on schedule and on budget. He was even able to alter the design shortly before building began, adding a high, barrel-vaulted transept across the centre of the building, at 90 degrees to the main gallery, under which he was able to safely enclose several large elm trees that would otherwise have had to be felled—thereby also resolving
8900-478: Was collected daily by a team of cleaning boys. Paxton also designed machines to sweep the floors at the end of each day. But in practice, it was found that the trailing skirts of the female visitors did the job well. Thanks to the considerable economies of scale Paxton was able to exploit, the manufacture and assembly of the building parts was exceedingly quick and cheap. Each module was identical, fully prefabricated, self-supporting, and fast and easy to erect. All of
9000-538: Was during this time that he changed his name from Stevens to Lascelles. Lascelles staged his first pageant in 1907. The Oxford Historical was a success, despite initial reservations by the University authorities and a student riot. The following year he organised the celebrations for the Tercentenary of Canada at Quebec City . Lascelles enlisted the services of the Iroquois and was made an honorary chief under
9100-480: Was invited to take the lily to Chatsworth. It thrived under his care, and in 1849 he caused a sensation in the horticultural world when he succeeded in producing the first amazonica flowers to be grown in England. His daughter Alice was drawn for the newspapers, standing on one of the leaves. The lily and its house led directly to Paxton's design for the Crystal Palace. He later cited the huge ribbed floating leaves as
9200-430: Was known as the Crystal Palace pneumatic railway . Dozens of experts such as Matthew Digby Wyatt and Owen Jones were hired to create a series of courts that provided a narrative of the history of fine art. Amongst these were Augustus Pugin 's Mediaeval Court from the Great Exhibition, as well as courts illustrating Egyptian , Alhambra , Roman , Renaissance , Pompeian , and Grecian art and many others. During
9300-480: Was left open. Paxton also used longer trellis girders to create a clear span for the roof of the immense central gallery, which was 72 feet (22 m) wide and 1,800 feet (550 m) long. Paxton's roofing system incorporated his elegant solution to the problem of draining the building's vast roof area. Like the Chatsworth Lily House (but different to its later incarnation at Sydenham Hill), most of
9400-419: Was limited to six months, after which something had to be decided on the future of the Crystal Palace building. Against the wishes of parliamentary opponents, a consortium of eight businessmen, including Samuel Laing and Leo Schuster , who were both board members of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR), formed a holding company and proposed that the edifice be taken down and relocated to
9500-516: Was originally erected in Hyde Park in London to house the Great Exhibition of 1851, which showcased the products of many countries throughout the world. The commission in charge of mounting the Great Exhibition was established in January 1850, and it was decided at the outset that the entire project would be funded by public subscription. An executive building committee was quickly formed to oversee
9600-405: Was redesigned and covered with a barrel-vaulted roof; the central transept was greatly enlarged and made even higher; the large arch of the main entrance was framed by a new facade and served by an imposing set of terraces and stairways. The building measured 1,608 feet (490 m) feet in length by 384 feet (117 m) feet across the transepts. The new building was elevated several metres above
9700-549: Was relocated to an open area of South London known as Penge Place which had been excised from Penge Common . It was rebuilt at the top of Penge Peak next to Sydenham Hill , an affluent suburb of large villas. It stood there from June 1854 until its destruction by fire in November 1936. The nearby residential area was renamed Crystal Palace after the landmark. This included the Crystal Palace Park that surrounds
9800-411: Was the first major application of his ridge-and-furrow roof design and was at the time the largest glass building in the world, covering around 28,000 square feet (2,600 m ). A decade later, taking advantage of the availability of the new cast plate glass , Paxton further developed his techniques with the Chatsworth Lily House, which featured a flat-roof version of the ridge-and-furrow glazing, and
9900-585: Was the ironwork contractor Fox and Henderson, whose director Charles Fox was also knighted for his contribution. The 900,000 square feet (84,000 m ) of glass was provided by the Chance Brothers glassworks in Smethwick. This was the only glassworks capable of fulfilling such a large order; it had to bring in labour from France to fulfil the order in time. The final dimensions were 1,848 feet (563 m) long by 456 feet (139 m) wide. The building
10000-526: Was two stories high, with the upper floor stepped in from the boundary. Most of the building had a flat-profile roof, except for the central transept, which was covered by a 72-foot-wide (22 m) barrel-vaulted roof that stood 168 feet (51 m) high at the top of the arch. Both the flat-profile sections and the arched transept roof were constructed using the key element of Paxton's design: his patented ridge-and-furrow roofing system, which had first seen use at Chatsworth. The basic roofing unit, in essence, took
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