London Awaits Successor to Crystal Palace

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 37, 27 February 1937, Page 18

London Awaits Successor to Crystal Palace

. . i. 1 . . LONBON.-r-A forlorn gap in Sonth London 's.-congested landscape, where "the dear old Crystal Palace" used to be, is being "surveyed by. a Committee of Twelve, in'cluding the fonner* Secretaiy of State for 'the Dominidns, Mr J. "H. Thomas, ' What is to be done with that imiuensely valuable site — a National Trust piled high with the charred and twisted •wreckage - of a quaint national possession known all over ihe world! Nobody knows,. . . Since -the sndden devastating flre of November , 30, many suggestions have been put f orward, xanging from .the promotionv ©f . a World 's Fair to .the provisiomof a centre for physical culture. Insurance payments of £130,000 have been ' mad© by ' the ' companies, but. no decisibn' has' been taken' as to what wiU rise f rom the -ashes of the old-time glass exMbition halL • ..MeanwMle , in the .. . suburbs around Sydenham. BKll-rdO green and mai when Faxton's biaarre glass ediflce was moved there after. the Hyde Park ExMbition of 18511— there prevails a sense ' of ■ personal* loss, as if an old, ' an intimdte, a valued friend were gone.' Snch is, ' indeed, the cese. 'For Londoners .gencraly ' aud South Londoners in particular had a curiously affectionate. regard for "the dear old Palace." Tt; was: an anachronism, if you likej a white elephant. And it nevOr quite shook off the cloak^of drabness that f ell upon it when it was used as a naval training depot during .the Great .War. But it tried gallantly, pathe.tically even, to. briug itself up to date, to trick out is immense bulk for f esivities in the manner of post-war days* Its Thursday fireworks displays in the summer were renowned, it was a centre for livestock 6hows, mass meetings,. concerts, .the National Band Festival, "attractions" in the grounds — and, after. Christmas, a good circus, And, by its "personality" it. tinged all 'these to some degree with the atmosphere ' of ' the times when Victoria was 'Queen .and -the Crystal Palace- a fasMonable resort, reached from town, by ," the best, people," in shiny carriages, drawn ;by spanking horses. The Palace in its latter years exercised an* appeal difficult to describe. More often than not, if one visited it in midweek or when no "speeial attraction" was billed, the only sounds were ; the echo of one's own footsteps Through i the Egyptian Court, tbei Byzantine ,

Court and the other nooks and crannies of this dim storehouse of memories. When the great organ played— -a renowned instrument in its day— there might be one or two elderly folk sitting in chairs in the vast centre transept. Its future was often under discussion* What will be done with it ultimately, people said. And the oia Palace settled fchati question by disappearing in a £uale thaf made Sfcs f amous fireworks lisplays aeem very- mnaH