Delamotte's Crystal Palace

Book excerpt: This book presents 47 photographs, which were all taken in 1859 by Philip Henry Delamotte and showed the interior of the Crystal Palace after it had been rebuilt in Sydenham, London and before it was destroyed for the first time by fire in 1866. These photographs are now housed in English Heritage's photographic archive, the National Monuments Record. All 47 photographs are beautifully reproduced in this book, as well as shots of the building in its original Hyde Park site where it was built for the great exhibition of 1851. Also included are views of the Crystal Palace when it was rebuilt after the 1866 fire and then when it was destroyed again by fire in 1936. The book also tells the story of this legendary Victorian pleasure dome and its many incarnations. Much of our previous knowledge of this important building and its contents came almost entirely from engravings. The reproduction of these high quality original photographs allows, for the first time, a much fuller appreciation of one of the most important architectural and cultural features of mid-Victorian England, which in its heyday was visited by many millions of people.