Crystal Palace Guide to the Palace and Park

A walkthrough to the Crystal Palace from the early 1870s.

This ephemeral souvenir guide to London’s iconic Crystal Palace was published locally by R.K. Burt and Company for the 1872/1873 season. The cheaply produced volume originally sold for twopence in the palace and at railway bookstalls (according to the cover and title page). The contents offer a printed walkthrough of the marvellous glass structure and surrounding attractions on Sydenham Hill. A ground plan of the Crystal Palace, tables of railway fares, and suggested itineraries offer useful information for the visiting tourist. Numerous woodblock illustrations and advertisements are interspersed throughout, offering a visual snapshot of the commercial pulse of the Victorian Era. Keen’s Mustard, Bennett’s Watches, and Epp’s Breakfast Cocoa are among the promoted products.

Originally erected in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851, Joseph Paxton’s glass and iron architectural wonder, the Crystal Palace, was carefully dismantled and recreated in South London in 1854. By the 1872/1873 season, the building had evolved from a sober educational hall into a vibrant entertainment complex, host to concert series, art galleries, and sprawling pleasure gardens, in addition to working-class amusements like fruit exhibitions, cat shows, and religious sermons. The magnificent structure stood until it was gutted by a catastrophic fire in 1936.