The Palace and Park: Its Natural History, and Its Portrait Gallery, Together with a Description of the Pompeian CourtLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
History
The Palace and Park: Its Natural History, and Its Portrait Gallery, Together with a Description of the Pompeian Court
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Crystal Palace (Sydenham, London, England)
We will presume that the visitor has taken his railway ticket, which,
for his convenience, includes admission within the Palace, and that his
twenty minutes’ journey has commenced. Before he alights, and whilst his
mind is still unoccupied by the wonders that are to meet his eye, we
take the opportunity to relate, as briefly as we can, the History of the
Crystal Palace, from the day upon which the Royal Commissioners
assembled within its transparent walls to declare their great and
successful mission ended, until the 10th of June, 1854, when
reconstructed, and renewed and beautified in all its proportions, it
again opened its wide doors to continue and confirm the good it had
already effected in the nation and beyond it.
It will be remembered that the destination of the Great Exhibition
building occupied much public attention towards the close of 1851, and
that a universal regret prevailed at the threatened loss of a structure
which had accomplished so much for the improvement of the national
taste, and which was evidently capable, under intelligent direction, of
effecting so very much more. A special commission even had been
appointed for the purpose of reporting on the different useful purposes
to which the building could be applied, and upon the cost necessary to
carry them out. Further discussion on the subject, however, was rendered
unnecessary by the declaration of the Home Secretary, on the 25th of
March, 1852, that Government had determined not to interfere in any way
with the building, which accordingly remained, according to previous
agreement, in the hands of Messrs. Fox and Henderson, the builders and
contractors. Notwithstanding the announcement of the Home Secretary, a
last public effort towards rescuing the Crystal Palace for its original
site in Hyde Park, was made by Mr. Heywood in the House of Commons, on
the 29th of April. But Government again declined the responsibility of
purchasing the structure, and Mr. Heywood’s motion was, by a large
majority, lost.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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