Overview

In June 2005 English Heritage received an exciting call from an auction house. An amazing collection of photographs had come into their possession which would shortly be going under the hammer. These photographs were so unique that English Heritage felt they should be acquired for the nation. The 47 photographs were all taken in 1859 by Philip Henry Delamotte and showed the interior of the Crystal Palace after it had been rebuilt and before it was destroyed for the first time by fire in 1866. The bidding for the photographs was fierce with many private collectors desperate to acquire the pictures. However, English Heritage managed to hold firm and the photographs are now on show to the public in its photographic archive, the NMR. All 47 photographs are beautifully reproduced in this book, as well as shots of the building in its original Hyde Park site where it was built for the great exhibition of 1851. Also included are views of the Crystal Palace when it was rebuilt after the 1866 fire and then when it was destroyed again by fire in 1936. The book also tells the story of this legendary Victorian pleasure dome and its many incarnations. Much of our previous knowledge of this important building and its contents came almost entirely from engravings. The reproduction of these high-quality original photographs allows, for the first time, a much fuller appreciation of one of the most important architectural and cultural features of mid-Victorian England, which in its heyday was visited by many millions of people.

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9781850749493

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