What is The Crystal Palace parkrun?

It’s a 5km run against the clock. It is held every Saturday at 09:00 in Crystal Palace Park. See Course page for more details. It’s free! but please register in advance. All abilities welcome. For further information go to the Crystal Palace parkrun website.

Crystal Palace parkrun needs you!

As the Crystal Palace parkrun is entirely organised by volunteers they always need people who can dedicate one or two Saturday morning every two months. The idea is to build a number of teams, each self-sufficient that will be able to start and end the run safely and produce the results. Some of these roles allow you to volunteer and run. i.e. a runner could easily do the post run results processing.

Crystal Palace parkrun is a warm, friendly event and the volunteers are invaluable in helping the event run as smoothly as possible.

New and old parkrunners are encouraged to join the list of volunteers. Without our volunteers on Saturday mornings Crystal Palace parkrun could not happen and I certainly could not do everything on my own!

There are lots of roles available on Saturday mornings, from setting up the event to registration, and timing to course marshals. Everyone is welcome to help out and volunteers are able to choose the role that they would like to do, training is given as and where necessary. During the event itself, there will always be people, including myself, around so if you ever had a problem you can call on them to help.

When you volunteer at Crystal Palace parkrun, you are rewarded for your efforts through points on the league tables, acknowledgements on the website and through emails. It is also very rewarding to help out too.

Volunteering on a Saturday morning only takes about an hour so you have the rest of the day to do as you wish. Some people help with set up and then run the 5k course, others run the course and then help pack the bits and pieces away so that they do not miss out on their weekend run.

All volunteers can help out as often or as little as they wish and there is no pressure whatsoever.

If you are interested in being put onto the volunteer list for the Crystal Palace parkrun please contact  CrystalPalaceHelpers@parkrun.com

The Crystal Palace Fire: The End of an Era

The Crystal Palace fire occurred on 30 Nov 1936. The “people’s palace” in Sydenham which had stood dominating the skyline of Upper Norwood for over eighty years as a beacon for culture and enlightenment and an emblem for Victorian invention and engineering was no more.

“A dramatic cliff of glass which had the quality of changing its colour with the changing of the weather or the time of day”, was how Alan R Warwick described Crystal Palace in The Phoenix Suburb. This otherworldly structure not only awed the local inhabitants of Norwood but also captured the imagination of the general population. Famous throughout the UK and visited by millions.

The “Crystal Palace”, as Punch dubbed it, was originally built for the Great Exhibition of 1851 at Hyde Park. It was the brainchild of Joseph Paxton, Head Gardener to the Duke of Devonshire who had a passion for building giant conservatories, which he constructed on the grandest scale. It housed art and craft treasures from all over the world and the best of the Industrial Revolution’s new technology.

Open for only five months, it attracted 6 million visitors. Due to the great success of the exhibition, a newly formed Crystal Palace Company purchased the Palace and it was dismantled and re-erected at a new permanent location on the crest of Sydenham Hill, alongside what was to later become Crystal Palace Parade. Queen Victoria reopened it here on June 10th 1854.

In 1866 the first Crystal Palace fire destroyed the north wing and transept. As the Crystal Palace Company was underinsured the north transept was never rebuilt and the building was unsymmetrical from then on. The night the Palace burnt down with the second Crystal Palace fire was a more spectacular event than could ever have been dreamt up by the Palace trustees. The irony was not lost on them or many of the national newspapers. The Palace’s swansong brought the largest crowd ever to assemble at the top of Anerley Hill. The event was deeply ingrained on the memories of Londoners with crowds thronging to investigate the red glowing sky and witness the collapse of their “Palace”.

Crystal Palace fire – time line

At approximately 7.25 pm on 30th November 1936 a staff fireman noticed a flame at the rear of the staff offices. Three staff firemen began fighting it but with no dividing walls to resist it and fanned by a strong northwest wind the fire spread rapidly. The Palace had been almost empty at the time apart from the Crystal Palace Orchestra rehearsing in the nearby Garden Hall. BH Matthews later said that the band didn’t take much notice when told there was a fire in the Palace. They soon fled after a staff member ran in crying, “Run for your lives! The Palace is blazing!” Thick smoke was by then bellowing out of the main door and glass was raining down “like red hot treacle”, according to Dorothy Crump of Sydenham.

At 7:59 the Penge Brigade received the call and got reinforcements from Beckenham Fire Brigade. West Norwood Fire Station received a street alarm call from Farquhar Road at 8.00pm and New Cross Fire Station received a call at 8.02pm. The call to West Norwood brought the whole of the London Fire Brigade into action.

The crowd of spectators gathering around the Crystal Palace soon grew to enormous proportions. The police estimated 100,000 people watched the fire. This caused inevitable delays. Seven hundred and forty-nine police were kept busy controlling the milling crowds. The BBC Radio News contained the first reports of the fire at 9 o’clock. This had brought many people rushing to the scene. Others had seen the glare of the fire, which lit up the sky like an exaggerated sunset and were mesmerised.

The whole of the Crystal Palace area was ankle deep in inter-woven fire hoses, and within an hour of the arrival of the first Penge fireman, over 70 pumps and other appliances crewed by over 400 fire-fighters were at work. Every available fire appliance from the London Fire Brigade had been summoned, totalling 90 engines and 500 firemen. According to some reports, the flames reached 300 feet. The glare could be seen from Brighton and by ships on the English Channel. Hills for miles around were packed with people watching the blaze. The rich could charter private aeroplanes from Croydon Aerodrome at £1 per trip to get a spectacular view over the fire. Motorcars were also arriving from the West End filled with the more well heeled who had finished watching the evening performances at the London shows.

For an eyewitness account read Ken Gibbons, Memories of the Crystal Palace Fire on Dulwich On View:

The sight of molten glass bubbling and squeeking down Annerley[sic] Hill’s gutters and the police pushing the crowds back out of harm’s way will always be with me. (K. Gibbons)

The Crystal Palace fire raged until midnight. Of serious concern to the residents of Anerley Hill was the safety of the 275-foot south tower. Not only did it have vast densely populated streets in its shadow but also the top of the tower held approximately twelve thousand gallons of water. Residents of nearby homes were evacuated in fear of it collapsing. Luckily, the London Fire Brigade managed to stop the fire some 15 feet from the tower.

The next day all that remained were the two water towers blackened with smoke and a few hundred feet of the nave to the north. About two hundred of seven hundred Palace employees received their notice the morning after the fire. Some were re-employed to clear the debris. Six years later the towers were demolished as they were thought to be an easy navigation point for German bombers. Explosives felled the North Tower and the South Tower was dismantled brick by brick due to the proximity to housing. Metal from the towers was sold off to the German manufacturers Krupp who later became involved with making bombs for the German war-machine. Therefore, some of the metal from the Palace may well have returned during the war!

ITN’s excellent coverage for 70th Anniversary with interviews(video)

Although there were a number of conspiracy theories as to the cause of the fire, the most logical seems to be explained as an electrical fault. The floor of the structure was made up of thick planks of wood with half-inch gaps to aid under floor heating. The floorboards themselves were extremely dry due to the constant exposure to the under floor heating. Many people felt that the poorly insulated wiring short-circuiting and creating sparks that fell onto the dry timber framing and accumulated dust in the centre of the building could have been the cause of the fire breaking out.

Causes of the Crystal Palace fire

As regards the cause of the Crystal Palace fire – this is unknown. However, there are a number of theories that bear credence – accident is a possibility, and some that do not – such as wanton arson by person or persons unknown for various reasons.

There was no enquiry into the cause of the fire because it was literally the wrong side of the road.

In 1936 Crystal Palace Parade was split in two by the line down the centre of the road. The Railway Station side (where the houses now are) was (and still is) Southwark and in London and the park side was Kent. The rule then was that any fire in London that required more than a certain number of pumps (the correct term for fire engines) had a public enquiry. But for any fire in Kent (parkside of the road) there had to be a death as a result of the fire for there to be an enquiry. There were no known deaths as a result of the fire. A few injuries but no deaths.

As for the insurance, the building was massively under insured because (like today it was very expensive and earned no money – it was a precaution. As the Crystal Palace Trustees were very short of money, insurance was not kept up to the correct value. There were individual aspects within the building that were insured to the correct level like for instance the equipment kept by J.Lyons & Co caterers and the huge organ. They got their correct payout.(Melvyn Harrison)

Thus the largest peacetime fire Britain had ever seen signalled the end for Paxton’s Palace.

Whatever happens with the current development of the Park we will never quite see the scale and grandeur of what went before.

The Crystal Palace fire is still firmly embedded in the minds of the eye-witness who where there.

After launching our flickr photo group six months ago we have already reached triple figure membership which currently stands at 101 (100 if you take me out of the equation!).

The Crystal Palace area is a fantastic environment for photography. In the Park itself you can photograph wildlife, landscapes, modern architecture, listed building, feats of civil engineering; and from Gipsy Hill you get a fantastic views of London.

Working with the Crystal Palace’s Bigger Picture Gallery we realised there is an abundance of photographic talent in the area (there is still just time to enter the Pedder Photographic Competition), so I would encourage you to join our group. All pictures are displayed on our gallery pages and the most recent appear on the sidebar on the righthand side of the page. The forum is a great place to share ideas, tips and get inspiration.

So whether you are a complete novice or a seasoned professional please join our group.

After successfully setting up Bromley parkrun, Ashlee Corfe handed over the event to a well trained, confident and friendly team at Bromley. She thought that South London could do with another parkrun and there wasn’t a better place than Crystal Palace Park. “I think that the heritage and the build-up to the Olympics will impact this park and what a time to utilise the space with local runners during this occasion,” commented Ashlee.

When the word got out that parkrun was coming to Crystal Palace the e-mails started flooding in saying that clubs, people, etc were so excited and could not wait to have one near them. Since starting, Crystal Palace parkrun took off and within the first month it has averaged 57 people per week. The volunteer team are extremely dedicated with lots of enthusiasm. The feedback from the participants is extremely positive even though people say the course is tough due to some hills but that is what makes it.

The good thing about Crystal Palace parkrun is that you can turn the day into an outing for the whole family by having a picnic, checking out the Dinosaur area, National Sports Centre and Athletics Stadium or the farm. For more information please visit the Crystal Palace Park website. So what is holding you back?

Come down and experience this high energy, friendly atmosphere for yourself. Even if you don’t want to run but would like to be a part of the team we are always looking for new volunteers.
To register please go to www.parkrun.com or for more information please contact Ashlee Corfe on 020 8323 1718 or e-mail events@bromleymytime.org.uk

Artist's Impression of Ray Hall's plan

‘Let’s go up the Palace’ a suggestion often uttered in Victorian times would, if Ray Hall has his way, be heard again throughout South London. He has spent the last twelve years producing a development proposal that would make a lot of people’s dreams come true. His vision is to rebuild one of the most beautiful and loved buildings in the world; the Crystal Palace making it once again the focus of the grounds that are now Crystal Palace Park.

Because his scheme has been excluded from the public consultation process, he now finds himself in competition for the top site with the LDA who wish to make a Crystal Palace out of TREES! If these trees are planted, the opportunity to rebuild the Crystal Palace will be lost forever.

Ray Hall agreed not to seek publicity and to work with the LDA within the dialogue process in return for assurances that his Crystal Palace would be included in their public consultation; a move that he now regrets.

When the Palace burnt down in 1936, South London lost a focus that has never been replaced. Even after 70 years, people still dream of the day the Palace would rise like the Phoenix from the ashes to once again enthral, educate and entertain us.

Ray wants to embrace our heritage and confidently transport it into an exciting future.  He refuses to deny the importance and significance of one of the greatest landmarks in the world. He urges people to celebrate it and bring it alive as a generator of sustainable viability that will secure the future of the park and the surrounding area.

The story so far…

The LDA have now submitted their Master Plan with its Tree Palace and they are likely to take up an option to acquire the Park from LB Bromley (the landowners) in March 2009

The Master Plan currently excludes the possibility of a new Crystal Palace choosing instead to sell parkland for housing – an option which will only bring in a one-off payment and will be so universally unpopular that it will surely be challenged legally.

Many people do not feel that a tree palace adequately pays tribute to the heritage and importance of this site. The Crystal Palace was truly the Palace of the People. Two thirds of the population of England visited it; a fact made even more amazing because the ‘Lord’s Day’ lobby stopped it opening on Sundays; most people’s only day off. When the Great Exhibition ended, it was its popularity that inspired its move to Sydenham where it was built with the same iconic design features. It sat on the hilltop looking out over its magnificent grounds and generated what we now know as South London. Such is the legacy of the people of South London latent in the name ‘Crystal Palace’.

A New Crystal Palace Charitable Trust

A New Crystal Palace Charitable Trust is proposed that could enter into a long lease with the London Borough of Bromley as the owner of Crystal Palace Park and that trust would then commission, build and own the new Crystal Palace. It would be responsible for the viability of the new Crystal Palace as well as providing funding for the park. Successful and socially responsible commerce servicing a strong charitable arm is key to Ray’s goal of enabling the regeneration of not only Crystal Palace Park but the whole of South London

Technical information

The new Crystal Palace is planned to be 280.8 metres in length and 79.2 metres in width. Built on the same module as Sir Joseph Paxton’s originals, its central, semi-circular barrel vault would rise to a height of 36.9 metres, with its lower nave and aisles stepping down to rest on an Italianate plinth designed to belong with the statutory listed remains of its forebear in a transformed Crystal Palace Park.

The iconic design would decorate what was the world famous boulevard (now Crystal Palace Parade) The Crystal Palace would be set back from the road and framed by an avenue of trees. For the first time in 70 years, the park, the boulevard and the Palace would once again be ‘The Crystal Palace’.

A New Crystal Palace Ltd

New Crystal Palace Ltd is currently a shell company specifically set up to contract with the New Crystal Palace Charitable Trust. It would take a lease on a significant proportion of the volume that would be shaped within the structure of the new Crystal Palace. That company would in turn contract with operators of leisure, sports, entertainment, hotel, performance, educational, business start-up and community facility.

This would be within the framework of a business plan geared to the economic viability of the new Crystal Palace in the context of a renewed Crystal Palace Park. A major component would be enabling ease of public access and enjoyment of what could effectively be a very large conservatory in a park setting.

A business plan has been prepared that indicates that such viability is achievable. The interested operators include:

a) A 4 rising 5 star hotel with conference, exhibition and spa/gym facility;

b) Leisure provision including a ‘real snow’ ski slope, climbing wall, cinema and screening rooms, family entertainment and performance space for all generations;

c) A Crystal Palace Story as a heritage destination

d) A huge landscaped Winter Garden set within the central barrel vault with a butterfly museum in the upper part of one nave and a botanical museum in the other

e) Stunning views not only of the renewed park but across central and outer London

f) Educational and business incubation provision in partnership with relevant universities, further education colleges and schools

Other possible contents include; a Crystal Palace Museum and a Museum of Sport, an Edwardian funfair and a wall of web cams showing what is happening at locations around the world at that moment in time.

Operators have been shortlisted and will now be chosen for their commercial and management skills and for their ability to partner with other community organisations.

For reasons of commercial sensitivity, Ray is unable to declare the names of the operators though the LDA and representatives of Bromley and Croydon Councils have been given them in confidence.

Ray is in discussions with a leading steel company and a leading glass wall company. There have also been confidential discussions with several potential sponsors who share Ray’s desire that the Crystal Palace should generate its own electricity through solar and related sustainable technologies. He wants the building to produce enough power to export electricity into the Park and beyond.

Enthusiastic Support

The business plan for the scheme has been developed with specialists in: hotel and leisure (Patrick Goff), funding and investment (Chris Pritchard) and property and planning (Mark Pender). All members of the team are passionate about the Crystal Palace. With Ray as the Chairman, they make up the core of the project delivery team.

At the invitation of Cllr Stephen Carr, leader of Bromley Council, the team made a presentation to senior councillors and officers in June of this year. Stephen had also invited the leader of Croydon Borough Council, Cllr Mike Fisher, and his colleagues.

They expressed their “enthusiastic personal support” for the new Crystal Palace and they recommended that the LDA should consider the scheme very seriously.

Funding

The construction cost of the new Palace is estimated at £80 million pounds.

The ability to seek and secure such funding is in good part dependent upon a detailed planning approval being granted for the new Crystal Palace and a separate formal agreement with the London Borough of Bromley to commit the land for that purpose if approved.

Chris, Patrick and Ray have had very positive discussions with commercial funding institutions such as the Royal Bank of Scotland and – in greater detail – Clydesdale Bank. They are therefore confident that such an option on the top site could enable the commercial arm of the venture to gain the necessary funding – some £150 million.

Meeting with the LDA

Ray met Roger Frith of the LDA in July. Roger said three things of note. He confirmed that the LDA “would not do anything to preclude Ray submitting a planning application for his new Crystal Palace” *. He said that they must support their own Master plan and, mindful of some local opposition to any form of development in the Park, he said the LDA must remain ‘neutral’ on the issue.**

*This turned out to be untrue, as the LDA’s proposal to plant 350 trees on the site would make it impossible to ever rebuild the Crystal Palace. **They have also criticised the Crystal Palace scheme in the local press calling it unpopular, impossible and damaging to the park – all of which are patently untrue and hardly neutral. In any case after the longest and one of the most expensive public consultations in England, it is crucial questions like this that should be decided by the public and not second- guessed by LDA grandees.

The crucial point is that the ‘Rebuild’ option should have been included in the consultation and its exclusion has denied the public an opportunity to consider an important option.

November 30th 2011

The goal of the team is at least the laying of the foundation stone – if not the actual unveiling of the new Crystal Palace – in a renewed Crystal Palace Park on November 30th, 2011: the 75th anniversary of the burning down of its illustrious forebear.

What a moment for the people south of the Thames!

With Crystal Palace back on the world stage, Ray believes we could then play our role in hosting the people’s of the world during the Olympics.

Local support

The scheme has universal support among the local traders and the young people. It also has huge support in the local estates. Jean Haley who received an MBE for her work in the community arranged for Ray to meet young people on her estate. Many were unemployed and without confidence in the future, but lived within easy access of Crystal Palace Park. Ray is confident that they would greatly benefit from the 1000 jobs that will be generated by the Crystal Palace. The younger children on the estate have nowhere to go and nothing to do locally. These are the children who will benefit from the leisure facilities and the 1000 jobs that the scheme will generate. These young people need to feel proud of their area. A new Crystal Palace could provide that pride of place so lacking at present.

When details of Ray’s Palace appeared in the local press, the headline the following week read ‘Support floods in for Ray’s Crystal Palace’ When we go out on to the streets we experience huge support. Importantly, most children and young people that we speak to get extremely excited by the prospect. The tree Palace may well have the support of the Main Group but we consider that the Main Group is in no way representative of the community at large and especially has not represented the youth, and the disadvantaged in the area who don’t even know that consultation process exists.

Conclusion

In spite of the present obstacles, Ray retains his trust and expectation that his vision can be realised. Although he is confident that everything is still to play for, he is acutely aware that if those who want this scheme do nothing about it, it will not happen. This is a pivotal moment in the history of Crystal Palace Park and now is the time for people to support Ray Hall’s scheme or let the opportunity fade away forever.

The only way forward is for The Mayor to give people the choice: the LDA’s – Palace of Trees or Ray Hall’s – Crystal Palace. Master Plan or Masterpiece?

If you would like to know more about the Rebuild the Crystal Palace scheme please log onto www.thecrystalpalacesite.com or phone:  07956 323 164, email: anewcrystalpalace@tiscali.co.uk

You can write directly to the Leader of Bromley Council, Cllr. Stephen Carr, Civic Centre, Stockwell Close, BR1 3UH or e-mail Stephen.carr@bromley.gov.uk

You can contact the LDA’s master planner’s local dialogue team at cpp@localdialogue.com

Or write to CPP consultation, local dialogue LLP, Freepost NAT 3717, London SE1 2BR

[See Mike Warwick's response: Up the Palace or Up the Garden Path]

(First published in Palace Mag Nov 2007)