Crystal Palace

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Crystal Palace. Designed by Sir Joseph Paxton to house the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851. It was itself the greatest success of the Exhibition. Paxton based it upon the lily house he had built at Chatsworth for the duke of Devonshire—a vast glass conservatory, dubbed the Crystal Palace by Punch. It was more than three times the length of St Paul's and included 294,000 panes of glass. The astronomer-royal declared that it could not stand, but it survived the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus at the opening ceremony, several gales, the excitement caused by a lady in bloomers, and the deafening cheers for the duke of Wellington. Victoria took Paxton's progress from gardener's boy as an example of the social mobility possible. In 1852 the building was removed to Sydenham, where it was destroyed by fire in November 1936.

J. A. Cannon

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