The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace ( German Crystal Palace) was a by British architect Joseph Paxton specifically for the first World Exhibition of 1851 in London ( Great Exhibition ) designed in the Victorian style and built by Charles Fox exhibition building. It was originally erected in Hyde Park and, after the end of the world exhibition in Sydenham in the London Borough of Lewisham, today's district Crystal Palace, where he was re-opened in enlarged form in 1854. The name Crystal Palace was coined by the satirical magazine Punch. 1936, the Crystal Palace was completely destroyed by fire.
The planning
In the fall of 1849 decided to connect a British banker and industrialist, the Society of Arts to host a World's Fair. The British products should be shown in direct comparison with international competitors and demonstrate their quality level. Britain was the world 's largest producer and should extend through the world exhibition its markets.
For the exhibition building an international competition was announced. The specifications were exceptional: On the property in Hyde Park, the existing trees should remain largely intact. The building was to be erected in a short time and be removable. The size of the exhibition plots should be selected freely, thus an undivided space was required. The exhibition building should cover an area of 6.4 ha. The budget was limited to 100,000 pounds sterling. From the month competition 233 designs emerged. They exceeded all the budget and were rejected. Two designs of engineers were honorable mention ( Richard and Thomas Turner of Dublin; Hector Horeau from Paris).
After the unsuccessful competition, the jury made a building committee and presented its own draft, a representative building in conventional solid construction. However, the plan did not meet the conditions of competition. But the material costs of an estimated 120-150000 pounds sterling would have exceeded the budget, it would not be dismantled, was still on time to produce. The public rejected the draft. The building committee called on Joseph Paxton, subsequently deliver in a new competition a draft.
Paxton, who as a garden architect had experience with greenhouses, submitted a design in the style of cast iron architecture made entirely of glass and cast iron, which was built by Charles Fox in just 17 weeks in the revolutionary for that time modular construction of prefabricated steel parts and glass segments. The Crystal Palace, as the greenhouse -like building was baptized soon so was practically extendable and covered with its dimensions of approximately 615 × 150 m, a total area of almost 93,000 m². Originally the building was designed with a flat roof. The characteristic arched roof above the transept of the building had been added later. This was due to some old elm that stood on the planned exhibition grounds and should be spared from deforestation. With 150,000 pounds sterling, the budget was still higher than the target amount, but the construction company undertook, in the case of dismantling and withdrawal of the material to be calculated only 79,800 pounds sterling.
The building
Basic unit of the palace were squares of side length 24 feet ( about 7.3 m). The base consisted of 77 × 17 such basic units. The division of the exhibition spaces reflected in these units. The rooms consist of a multiple of basic units.
Only the technical innovations of the industrial revolution and the advances in iron production necessitated the building of the Crystal Palace possible. The construction of iron beams also allowed the complete abandonment of load-bearing masonry, so that could be used instead large glass window. The first pillar of the building was set on 26 September 1850. After four months, the area was overbuilt in southern Hyde Park on an area of 560 x 137 meters; were used, 83,600 m² of glass, 372 roof trusses, 38 km Kehl profile material, 330 km and 17,000 m³ of wood glass frame.
After the exhibition, the building was dismantled, built with some changes in Sydenham in a large park again and used as a museum and exhibition building. In the park in 1853 created several life-size dinosaur sculptures were installed, which caused a first wave of dinosaur - interest. The park also many sports activities, this is also where the name of the famous football club Crystal Palace declares developed. The Crystal Palace burned down on 30 November 1936 an explosion completely down. Only two deformed by the fire towers were initially available. These were removed during the Second World War, because it was feared they might serve the enemy planes as points of reference. The northern tower was blown up in 1941, the southern conventionally demolished because of its proximity to other buildings. The park still exists and was supported by the English Heritage English Heritage Authority in the historically interesting parks register ( Register of Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England) was added.
The Crystal Palace has thus established a building type, please refer to various Nachfolgebauten under glass palace.
Photographic witnesses
The preserved historic talbotype images of British photographer Philip Henry Delamotte (1820-1889) are now the basis of most descriptions of the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the untergangenen building. As the official photographer of the Great Exhibition of Italian born Enrico was (Henry) Negretti invited (a pioneer of photography, optician and manufacturer of scientific equipment and facilities) with his since 1829 the London-based company Negretti & Zambra, which devices then produced with itself the first stereo daguerreotypes of the building created. While the daguerreotypes originals and therefore precious uniques were all and the stereo recording, although delivered impressive results that could be opened only with expensive special equipment but, on the other hand Dela Motte's more modern and cheaper paper images were arbitrarily reproducible and soon reached as postcards also the general public in the wide world.