| Crystal Palace by Joseph Paxton |
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| Crystal Palace
One of the most elegant and most foreword architectural designs of its time was the Crystal Palace designed by Joseph Paxton.
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| Joseph Paxton |
Joseph Paxton, born on August 3rd, 1803, is an English gardener and architect. In 1850 the Royal Commission was appointed to organize the Great Exhibition and received 235 designs in a competition for a building to host this event. When visiting London, Paxton met with John Ellis, a member of parliament, and conveyed his idea for the building. Ellis, intrigued by this, encouraged Paxton to produce plans to be held at a meeting. Although Paxton was sure of his ideas, when appearing at the meeting he brought doodles and sketches of the Crystal Palace to present to the Commission. The meeting went well, however some of the Commission members opposed his plans due to another design already being well into its planning stage. In order to push his design further, Paxton published his design in the Illustrated London News and gained universal acclaim.
The Crystal Palace was 1,848 feet long, 408 feet wide, and 108 feet high. It was constructed out of 4,500 tons of iron, 60,000 cubic feet of timber, and 293,00 panes of glass. Although this seemed like a lot of material, it only took 2,000 men eight months to build and was cost efficient at £79,800.
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| Crystal Palace during the Great Exhibition of 1851 |
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| Crystal Palace Fire - 1936 |
The Crystal Palace hosted the Great Exhibition of 1851 where more than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered to display art and technology. Because of it's immense use of glass, the largest amount ever seen in a building at the time, the building provided its own light source. When the exhibition ended it was moved to Penge Common and was enlarged, staying there from 1854 to 1936. Unfortunately it was destroyed by a small office fire n the night of November 30th, 1936.
The building was unbelievably modern for its time; no one had seen such a feat done before. It helped to establish Britain as a foreword country in technology with iron and glass. Paxton, including two other men who assisted him, were so successful in it's production that all three were rightfully knighted.
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