Park hosts Crystal Palace replica

The palace was completely destroyed by fire in 1936

A replica of part of the original Crystal Palace is being erected in the south London park where it once stood.

A team of builders and architects constructed the design in the spot where the original site once stood in Crystal Palace Park.

The Crystal Palace was completely destroyed after being burned down by a fire in 1936 - nearly 90 years after it was built.

The replica will be officially unveiled next Saturday.

Local campaigners were granted temporary planning permission by Bromley Council for the construction of the replica.

Regeneration plans

"This is London's latest little landmark," said John Greatrex, founder of the Crystal Palace Foundation which has led the project.

"People can come to Crystal Palace and get a sense of what the palace was really like.

"What we're offering here is a kind of open air museum exhibition for 365 days of the year."

The palace was first erected in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition in 1851 before being reinstalled in Crystal Palace Park by its designer Sir Joseph Paxton in 1854.

The pieces of the replica were made by an iron foundry in Wolverhampton and transported by steam boat down the Grand Union Canal, taking three weeks to arrive in London.

Bromley Council is currently considering a £67.2m plan to revamp the south London park.

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