Crystal Palace statue?

[phaeton]

Hi,

Does anyone have a picture (or a description) of this statue before it was vandalised please?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learn ... alace6.jpg

Thanks,

P

[The Scorpion]

Possibly Plinth 7 here? 12 pics down.

http://sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1538

If not, maybe one of the other photo's listed in that interesting thread

Good luck.
Sue

[phaeton]

Possibly Plinth 7 here? 12 pics down.

http://sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1538

If not, maybe one of the other photo's listed in that interesting thread

Good luck.
Sue

Thanks Sue,

Could well be!

It is dreadfully sad what has become of the palace gardens - why on earth weren't they Listed or Graded? The word though is total neglect. I used to sneak into the gardens as a kid, they were fenced off, there was a lot more to see in those days, and wild grasses knee to waist high, gosh if only I had a camera in those days. But we thought the gardens would always be like that, like a time warp forever - there is practically nothing left today. There used to be a ship's bell in the gardens, in its own little shelter. It must have been huge. You couldn't see inside though, it had corrugated steel all around it. But everyone somehow knew there was a ship's bell inside. Bell and shelter vanished now.

Am writing song about the Crystal Palace, that's why I want to identify the statue.

Someone shot some cine film around the palace gardens site here - & there she is:

http://youtu.be/zcTDVRaJdGk

Many thanks

P

[Annie.]

I thought the bell and shelter were along the pathway into the park near the entrance from Sydenham Avenue/Lawrie park Ave ? Has it gone?

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[tulse hill terry]

To quote from the thread with regards to what I have called "Plinth #6:

The "Guide to the Crystal Palace and Gardens" states that 26 statues personifying Cities and Nations important to trade, stood on the upper terrace. This must be inaccurate as only 24 were ever present.

They were also not arranged as described in the guide.

The subjects ARE listed by sculptor and subject.

With very few photographed well over the years, it will probably always be near impossible to show them all clearly.

I've numbered them by all the 26 possible plinths that a statue could have stood on.


Plinths # 4, 5 and 6. Only the figure on the right remains, headless and armless!



Statue on Plinth #6 in 1967

[phaeton]

"Statue on Plinth #6 in 1967" yes, that must also be her - many thanks - she has sadly lost her head now. I have no idea where the bell shelter stood in relation to the rest of the park / gardens, there must be a record of what became of that bell ... does not the bell shelter feature in the film 'The Pleasure Garden' (1953) with excellent Hattie Jacques and John Le Mesurier & exquisite footage of the palace gardens gone wild, before they were vandalised?

http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com ... FuJI7VQ%3D

Btw, there is rumoured to be a service tunnel (as opposed to a train tunnel) still in existence beneath the mound that was the Crystal Palace. I cannot imagine why 'Time Team' or someone don't do a 21st century exploration of the site?

[phaeton]

I have no idea where the bell shelter stood in relation to the rest of the park / gardens, there must be a record of what became of that bell ... does not the bell shelter feature in the film 'The Pleasure Garden' (1953) ...?

There's a bell here!

"RNVR" - Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve - that must have been it then?

http://forum.sydenham.org.uk/viewtopic. ... 33&p=56683

[tulse hill terry]

http://www.sydenham.org.uk/crystal_palace_park_01.html

[Annie.]

That's where I said it was.

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[phaeton]

That's where I said it was.

Thanks Terry & Annie,

But was it always at this precise location and if so, what are the pavilions shown amongst the palace fountains in the old photographs please? There is a larger one which looks like a bandstand but also a smaller one to its south?

http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/5791 ... ned02h.jpg

Thanks,

P

[tulse hill terry]

Centre of terrace

1854 - 1865 Nothing

1865 - ? Shakespeare Monument by John Thomas



http://media.vam.ac.uk/media/website/ve ... 200836.jpg

1873 - ? Memorial to Joseph Paxton erected. = Paxton bust.




1911 - Bust of Paxton discovered at bottom of park and erected facing the palace. Bandstand in it's place. = bandstand



Post 1918 - Memorial erected = bandstand and memorial



1950's - Paxton bust by the Grand Fountain, facing the Palace.

1953 - "Pleasure Garden" filmed on the terraces of Crystal Palace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pleasu ... 53_film%29

Present - same spot, facing Penge.

So the memorial was on the terrace and then where it is now.

The Terrace was covered in booths from the Festival of Empire until after WW1.

P.S. This all happened decades before I, and I suspect Annie were born !

[phaeton]

Thanks. So that's it then, the bell shelter - naval memorial - just to the right of the bandstand in your 'Upper Terraces' postacard, with what looks like a flag pole to the south of the memorial?

[tulse hill terry]

Yes, by 1953 a grill must have been erected around it, for security on an abandoned site perhaps?

R.N.V.R. COMMEMORATION TROPHY. CRYSTAL PALACE.



The Palace had many flagpoles erected on the terraces over the years, as well as poles to support the screens for Brock's weekly firework displays,

[phaeton]

Oh good, that was either what I remember as a kid then, or the memory of the 'ship's bell' had lingered over the original setting & adhered to some other boarded up structure on the terraces. In those days you could also walk the High Level Station tunnel from end-to-end but you had to move pretty sharpish on emerging into daylight cos you found yourself in someones back garden!

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/c/cr ... ex37.shtml

P