The Crystal Palace from afar...

[Ulysses]

Firstly thank you Konqi for clearing up my question regarding the Panorama Building on the 'missing steps at Crystal Palace' thread. My curiousity was piqued given from the air it appeared to have a thatched roof.

Anyway, my query is this:

Do any pictures of the Crystal Palace exist but from further away?

The reason I ask is Sydenham Hill and the CP transmitter can be seen for literally miles. You can see it from Ealing/Acton (I know this from visiting friends on Saturday). You can see it clearly even as you depart L.Bridge and Victoria. Yes, it's a fair old landmark. But I've only ever seen the Palace itself from pictures from the air or up-close. Do any exist that show the Palace sitting on Sydenham Hill but from say...Croydon? Or from the other side? From Central London maybe?

I just wondered how the silhouette would have been altered from the fairly wooded but architecturally empty view from afar of today (unless you count the Eiffel Tower-esque TV mast as a thing of beauty...). I guess the technology of the day would've been fairly limiting but perhaps by the 30's cameras would have been up to the job?

[Konqi]

This is the Crystal Palace from the hill on Queens Meed in Bromley:

[Ulysses]

Thank you Konqi.

Without meaning to seem ungrateful is this the only one in existence? If I wanted to find some more where would you suggest I go (so to speak!)?

It must have been fairly visible from 'town'?

Thank you for this image all the same. It must have really been a landmark for miles around. In the same way the mast is now (assuming you're not in a high-rise area).

[Konqi]

It's the only one that pops into my head, there are most likely others.

Just have to search photo archives on the internet or libraries and such.

That photo I posted can be found by searching for photos of Bromley, Kent on the Francis Frith website.

[tulse hill terry]

By William White Warren

From a thread that turned into "Crystal Palace in Colour"

http://forum.sydenham.org.uk/viewtopic. ... 4d87102d99

[tulse hill terry]

Will this do?

From a photocopy as the original pull-out is too long for my A4 scanner.

Top caption:

"This photograph wa taken from the Crystal palace, looking towards the heights of Hampstead and Highgate. the general impression of the foreground is that of a well-wooded countryside from which the buildings of Dulwich College and the spire of St. Stephen's Church on the left, with St. Barnabas' Church to the right. But the vision of teeming London begins in the middle distance. to the right of the picture, that is to say eastward, st. paul's standds out crystal clear - the one London landmark that one cannot help seeing in any comprehensive view; and to the left the outline of alexandra Palace, twelve miles distant. Necessarily the rise and fall of the ground is responsible for many disappearrances of buildings which one would think it impossible to miss. Yet this view from the south side renders with fidelity the immensity of a city that is a county of 7,500,000 inhabitants. This is the city that has grown out of Roman Londinium. It developed comparitively slowly until the 19th century was reached, when there sprang up in haphazard fashion that vast agglomeration of streets and squares which a more enlightened age is still longing to re-model as well as further enlarge."

Bottom caption:

" Looking back across the great city from Parliament Hill Fields, the view assumes a definiteness in regard to individual buildings that is denied to the panorama from the southern side. More literally, london lies at one's feet. Ranging from left to right, one can very easily pick out from the middle distance the Tower bridge, St. Paul's, with the dome of the British Museum almost in line with it, and the roof of Cannon Street station. the several spires to the left are those of the city churches. Westward it is possible to distinguish the spires of the Law Courts and St. Martin-in-the Fields, and far distant on its Surrey Hill the roof of the Crystal Palace. From this side London appears pre-eminently a city of towers and spires of an immeasurable variety. to some extent also it is a dream, for the photograph play strange trichs of foreshortening, throwing almost together buildings that one knows to be a long way apart. yet the total impression is that of multitudinous streets and a goodly proportion of noble buildings; of a city crowded but not cramped, thanks to the evidence of enough spare spaces and a pleasant verdure to relieve modern congestion."

[Ulysses]

Wonderful tulse hill terry.

I'm not a smilie type of guy but I feel the need here...

The second picture is exactly what I was looking for. Excellent. Thank you.

I note it was described as being far distant on it's Surrey Hill. I wouldn't say we are that far out but understand even then it was viewed as a day out in the countryside. Surrey Hill eh? I'm going to have to accept my lack of knowledge here rather than revel in ignorance (see 'The Crystal Palace at Sydenham' thread) and add Surrey Hill to the list of where the CP was actually housed. It's variously been described as Sydenham Hill/At Sydenham/Atop Sydenham/Atop Penge Place/Penge Hill etc.

I'm content that then, as now, no-one really knew where Sydenham and the site of the Crystal Palace was.

Thank you again.

[Trawlerman]

Great Pics !!

[bensonby]

There's a fantastic photograph taken from the Dulwich College Playing fields that gives a great impression of just how big the Crystal Palace Was... I'll see if I can track it down.

[tulse hill terry]

Been trying to find another photo hosting service, as photobucket keeps cutting out on me, here's the panorama again [and bigger]. It's going to take me forever to replace all the links, as I have over 900 images on the photobucket account, all for this forum alone.

Wish me luck, or not.

[mcleanmuir]

If you go here you will see an image taken from St George's Church Tower in Beckenham. It looks as if the card ha been retouched. http://www.beckenhamhistory.co.uk/The%2 ... 201905.jpg