London at the End of the Century:A Book of Gossip
a Beckett, Arthur William
1900
FROM KNIGHTSBRIDGE TO SYDENHAM.
All the world knows that, after a struggle to retain the Crystal Palace of on the site it originally occupied, the structure was removed to Sydenham and set up afresh. If my memory does not play me false, the smaller transept at Upper Norwood is the that used to face the barracks at Hyde | |
115 | Park. Amongst other exhibits at Sydenham removed from Hyde Park were two fountains, one of glass and the other showing figures representing the four quarters of the earth. And was not the Wurtemberg collection also at Knightsbridge, and And of all the exhibitions that have been held during the past half-century the dear old Crystal Palace as it now exists has been the best. We are so accustomed to its glories that we forget their value. Think of the various courts, the Alhambra, the villa from Pompeii, the Egyptian and the Greek. When fire destroyed one of the transepts, the two huge figures of Memnon were lost in the flames. They were never replaced, possibly because the public takes more interest nowadays in variety entertainments than in archaeological research. Still, the Crystal Palace continues to flourish as the home of the best music, the purest literature, and the brightest art. |
