the great exhibition

THE GREAT EXHIBITION The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, was an international exhibition that took place in Hyde Park, in London, from the 1st May to the 11th October 1851. It was organized by Prince Albert and other members of Royal Society, in the Crystal Palace. This exhibition marks the peak of British power in the Victorian time and the triumph of modern industry with the presentation of craft and industrial prowess of the whole world. It had a great success, with over than 6 millon visitors. The audience was mostly from middle class, because the poor people couldn't spend money to have access to the Crystal Palace. The profit rose to 160 000 pounds. THE CRYSTAL PALACE The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and plate-glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, in London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace. Designed by Joseph Paxton, the Great Exhibition building was 564 m long, with an interior height of 39 m. Because of the recent invention of the cast plate glass method in 1848, which allowed for large sheets of cheap but strong glass, it was at the time the largest amount of glass ever seen in a building and astonished (étonnés) visitors with its clear walls and ceilings (plafonds) that did not require interior lights. After the exhibition, the building was rebuilt in an enlarged form on Penge Common next to Sydenham Hill, an affluent South London suburb full of large villas. It stood there from 1854 until its destruction by fire in 1936. The name Crystal Palace came from the playwright Douglas Jerrold. On 13 July 1850 he wrote in the satirical magazine Punch as 'Mrs Amelia Mouser' about the forthcoming Great Exhibition of 1851, referring to a palace of very crystal, a name that was subsequently picked up and repeated even though the building had not been approved at that stage. The name was later used to denote this area of south London and the park that surrounds the site, home of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. A re-working of the building, known as The Garden Palace, was constructed in Sydney in 1879, but this building too was destroyed by fire. There are proposals, although in early stages, to re-build the Crystal Palace within the Crystal Palace Park.