Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
17
THE GREAT EXHIBITION AND THE CRYSTAL PALACE
South of the Serpentine was the site of the
Great Exhibition
of the Works and Industry of
All Nations, held between May 1 and October 15, 1851. The idea originated with Henry Cole,
a minor civil servant in the Record O
ce, and was taken up enthusiastically by Prince Albert
despite opposition from snooty Kensington residents, who complained it would attract an
“invasion of undesirables who would ravish their silver and their serving maids”. A competition to
design the exhibition building produced 245 rejected versions, until Joseph Paxton, head
gardener to the Duke of Devonshire, offered to build his “
Crystal Palace
”, a wrought-iron and
glass structure some 1848ft long and 408ft wide. The acceptance of Paxton's radical proposal was
an act of faith by the exhibition organizers, since such a structure had never been built, and their
faith was amply rewarded - two hundred workers completed the building in just four months.
As well as showing off the achievements of the
British Empire
, it was also a unique
opportunity for people to enjoy the products of other cultures. Thousands of exhibits were
housed in the Crystal Palace, including the Koh-i-Noor diamond (displayed in a birdcage), an
Indian ivory throne, a floating church from Philadelphia, a bed which awoke its occupant by
ejecting him or her into a cold bath, false teeth designed not to be displaced when yawning,
a fountain running with eau de Cologne and all manner of china, fabrics and glass.
To everyone's surprise,
six million visitors
came, and the exhibition made a profit, which
was used to buy 87 acres of land south of Kensington Road, for the creation of a “Museumland”
where “the arts and sciences could be promoted and taught in a way which would be of
practical use to industry and make Britain the leading country of the industrialized world”. The
Crystal Palace itself was dismantled after the exhibition and rebuilt in southeast London in
1854, where it served as a concert hall, theatre, menagerie and exhibition space, only to be
entirely destroyed by fire in 1936 (see p.313).
and the bizarre Egyptian service, which was originally a divorce present from Napoleon
to Josephine; unsurprisingly, she rejected it and Louis XVIII ended up giving it to the
duke. In the basement there's plenty of Wellingtonia, a goodly selection of cruel,
contemporary caricatures and a pair of the famous boots.
Rotten Row
From behind the Hyde Park Screen, which stands beside Apsley House, two roads set off
west to Kensington: South Carriage Road, which is open to cars, and
Rotten Row
, which
remains a bridle path. The name is thought to be a corruption of
route du roi
(king's way),
after William III who established it as a bridle path linking Westminster and Kensington.
William had three hundred oil lamps hung from the trees to try to combat the increasing
number of highwaymen active in the park, thus making Rotten Row the first road in the
country to be lit at night. The measure was only partly successful - George II himself was
later mugged here. To the south of Rotten Row, the
Hyde Park Barracks
are di
cult to
miss, thanks to Basil Spence's uncompromising 308ft-tall concrete residential tower
block. Early in the morning, you might catch sight of the Household Cavalry exercising
in the park, and at around 10.30am daily (Sun 9.30am) they set off for the Horse Guards
building in Whitehall for Changing the Guard (see p.48).
The Serpentine
Rowing boats and pedalos
Easter-Oct
Solarshuttle
June-Aug daily every 30min noon-dusk • One way £2.50
The
Serpentine
, Hyde Park's curvaceous
lake, was created in 1730 by damming the
Westbourne, a small tributary of the Thames, so that Queen Caroline might have a spot
for the royal yachts to mess about on. A miniature re-enactment of the Battle of Trafalgar
was staged here in 1814, and two years later Shelley's pregnant wife, Harriet Westbrook,
drowned herself after the poet had eloped with the 16-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft
Godwin. The popular
Lido
(see p.439) is on the south bank, alongside its lovely café, and
rowing boats and pedalos can be rented from the
Boathouse
on the north bank. he
solar-powered
Solarshuttle
boat ferries folk from one bank to the other in summer.
