Crystal Palace Park

From Virtual Norwood

Crystal Palace Park is in the Crystal Palace Ward of Bromley and is currently owned and managed by The London Borough of Bromley. It was originally part of Penge Common and the Great North Wood. During the time of The Great Exhibition it was a popular tourist destination. A third of the UK population visited the exhibition and the profits were used to pay for the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum. However, the attraction fell into decline when visitor numbers dwindled at the turn of the 20th Century due to observance of the Sabbath and restrictive working times.

Crystal Palace Park is still home to the world’s first dinosaur theme park, designed and sculpted by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins in 1852. Crystal Palace National Sports Centre (Crystal Palace NSC) is also located within the park grounds and includes the listed building housing the Olympic sized swimming pool and squash courts and the Athletics Stadium used for the Norwich Union Grand Prix Athletics championship. Crystal Palace Bowl is on the eastern side of the park and is used for outdoor concerts including The Bowl music festival, and slightly further up on the top of the hill is London’s second highest landmark, the Crystal Palace Television Transmitter.

A proposal for construction of a Multiplex Cinema based on the top site of the park was defeated in May 2001. The redevelopment of the park is now under discussion with talks organised by the LDA.

[edit] External Links

• Crystal Palace Park website
• British Paramount Press - archive video newsreel of the Crystal Palace fire in 1936
• Crystal Palace Dinosaurs - photos of the dinosaurs by Fiona Moore
• LDA Consultation - transcripts of meetings of the steering group and main dialogue group

[edit] Forum Discussion

• Virtual Norwood Forum - discussion of the latest news affecting the sports centre
• Virtual Norwood Forum - discussion of the latest news affecting the park

[edit] Map