|
Videos that, as yet, have no channel of their own
...
Crystal Palace Park was the second site for the
Crystal Palace first built by Paxton for the 1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde
Park. The second 1856 Crystal Palace was a bigger, better version set in an
almost Disney-like Gardens with exotic creatures and amazing water features. It
was run as a theme park - a day out in the country for Londoners who arrived at
a special train terminus. It had its ups and down over the next 80 years. It
was the home of many national events and sports. In 1936 it had just been
refurbished. It was also was home to the world's first television studio
complex. Then on 30th November 1936 it was destroyed by fire. More information
«here»
WW2 came and the Park was left to rot. The TV Tower
was built and in the 1960/70 decades the National Sports Centre & Stadium
were built. The Park has been used as sets for films and adverts. Here we
feature the famous scene from the Italian Job (see the tower behind Michael
Caine?) and the launch 118 118 advert which pretty much follows the central
axis path from the lower park along the NSC pathway past Joseph Paxton's bust
to the steps of Palace site itself. You can take a virtual walk around the Park
«here»
The Palace still entertains. The Crystal Palace
Bowl has pop concerts and a season of classical concerts. Picnic to
Beethoven with a traditional fireworks display to follow. The Forest Hill &
Sydenham Rotary Club made the Crystal Palace the biggest Guy Fawkes night in
London raising huge somes for charity. sadly Health & Safety concerns meant
this had to be scaled down and handed over to commercial operators. However the
2006 event marking both the 150th & 70th anniversaries of the opening and
fire.
Ernest Shackleton the Antarctic Explorer grew
up in the house next to St Bart's on Westwood Hill. He daily walked up over
Sydenham Hill to Dulwich College. He married his sweetheart from what is now
Lawrie Park Gardens. His achievements at making the conquest of the Pole
possible and what must be the the most improbable rescue of the Endurance crew
by rowing across the Antarctic Sea in an open boat are legend. His brother
Frank was also a legend but of the villanous sort.
«more
here»
Dame Cicely Saunders was founder of the Hospice
movement with St Christopher's in Lawrie Park Road. Cicely lived in Lawrie Park
Gardens and changed the way we treat terminally ill people. Pallative Care was
very much her own creation.
If Sydenham has a twin - it is Forest Hill. We
share a library, the Pools, schools and the Horniman Museum. So why not share
this toungue in cheek view of SE23? |
