Crystal Palace Park

One of the principal legacies of the Great Exhibition, originally held in Hyde Park in 1851 and then relocated to Sydenham in an area now known as Crystal Palace. The grounds of the new glass palace featured the first life-size models of dinosaurs set in a series of miniature landscapes created by Joseph Paxton, designed to illustrate different periods in geological time. The sculptures were designed by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins who worked with palaeontologists of the time to interpret what was then known of the fossil record. The results differ considerably from what more recent research indicates, but are valuable outdoor exhibits from the history of science. Various phases of restoration have taken place, including the repair and painting of some of the sculptures.