They just don’t make em like that anymore No 1001 – The Crystal Palace. The centrepiece of the 1851 Great Exhibition, the Palace was an unparalleled feat of engineering and craftsmanship that stood proudly in Hyde Park for the five months of the exhibition.
At over 990,000 square feet of exhibition space and measuring a truly gargantuan 1,851 feet (564 m) long, the structure was three times the size of St Paul’s Cathedral!
Tragically, the palace, which was moved to South London after the exhibition had ended, perished in a fire in 1936.
However, if you’ve always wondered what the Palace must have looked like, wonder no more, as those clever chaps from the Royal Parks have recreated the structure virtually.
The Great Exhibition Virtual Tour will give history lovers a chance to wonder at the beautiful and ingenuity of the structure while learning some amazing facts about the exhibition it housed.
The tour uses a combination of CGI and 360° photography which has allowed the designers of the experience to overlay the palace onto the present-day site, giving viewers the chance to switch between them.
Better yet, as you wander around the building, there will be a host of intriguing stories to discover. You’ll learn about the first ever public toilets and incredible woman who walked all the way from Cornwall in order to attend the event.
The Great Exhibition was one of the first world fairs and certainly one of the most successful. It lasted from the 1st of May 1851 until the 15th October 1851, with more than six million people said to have attended the event in that time.
Following the event, the Crystal Palace was moved to Penge Common in South London, with the surrounding area subsequently renamed Crystal Palace. Even though the structure was completely destroyed in the fire of 1936, the park in which it was housed (Crystal Palace Park) is still one of the most popular parks in the capital.
The Great Exhibition Virtual Tour is available here.
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