The Crystal Palace Subway is somewhere that I have had on my list to visit for a good few years now. I was therefore delighted to have recently been given access by the team at the Crystal Park Palace Trust.
Designed by Charles Barry Junior, the Crystal Palace Subway was originally constructed as the first class entrance, for passengers arriving by train, to see the magnificent Crystal Palace. It is a real hidden historic treasure of South London and has recently, thankfully, been partially restored. It is open to the public for open days and is available to hire for events.
A brief history of The Crystal Palace
In 1849, the idea for a ‘Great Exhibition’ to showcase the inventions, manufacturing and technological advancements, not just in Britain, but countries across the world, was conceived. It was the idea of a civil servant called Henry Cole, under the patronage of Prince Albert who was the President of the Society of Arts. Henry Cole is also, by the way, known for helping establish the V and A and producing the first ever commercially sold Christmas card.
Hyde Park was chosen as the location and an architect, engineer and gardener by the name of Joseph Paxton won the commission to design the venue. The Crystal Palace, as it became known, was a huge cast iron and glass structure. The design, utilising pre-fabricated components, was revolutionary for the time and was chosen as a cost-effective and quick solution.
The exhibition ran from 1st May to the 15th October 1851, attracting an estimated six million visitors. Considering the population of the United Kingdom was 21 million at the time, this was a monumental achievement.
The Crystal Palace Moves To South London
It was only intended to be a temporary addition to Hyde Park and in 1852 a new site was found in South London. It was a spot then known as Sydenham Ridge in Penge Park/Place.
The Crystal Palace was dismantled, moved and rebuilt, in an enlarged form. 200 acres of pleasure grounds with gardens, ornaments and sculptures were laid out around it.
It re-opened to visitors in June 1854 with a new station, Crystal Palace Station, to serve it. The building featured areas depicting various periods of architecture, as well as displays of art and manufacture.
An additional high-level station opened in 1865, to relieve pressure on the original station, but also to provide a grander and more impressive entranceway for first class passengers.
First class passengers would walk from the train to the Crystal Palace via the beautiful subway. Designed by Charles Barry Junior, groined arches of coloured brick and stone and a Byzantine-style vaulted ceiling led to a bright vestibule roofed with glass and iron. You feel as if you are perhaps walking through the converted crypt of an Italian Cathedral.
War And Fire
During World War One the Crystal Palace and the Park were commandeered by the Royal Navy and used for training. It was officially known as HMS Victory VI for the duration.
On the 30th November 1936 a devastating fire consumed the Crystal Palace. The cause is not known but thankfully no-one lost their lives.
The high-level railway remained open until 1954 and it was later demolished in 1961.
The Subway was used as an air raid shelter during the Second World War. You can still see the old channel for the urinals when it was in use as an air raid shelter.
The park itself was used as a military base and as a site to dump rubble from bomb damage.
The Subway was thankfully not demolished with the station, but was simply closed and abandoned for years. Many locals remember going into the subway as children to play and it was occasionally used for community events.
The Subway was designated a Grade II listing by Historic England in 1972, protecting it and this was upgraded to Grade II* in 2018.
A Campaign For Restoration
In around 2011 locals started campaigning to have it restored and reopened. These campaigners formed into the Friends of Crystal Palace Subway in 2013.
In 2019 there was a breakthrough. A grant for over £2 million was received from the City of London Strategic Investment Pot, along with £1 million from Historic England and some also from private donors. Bromley Council appointed architects Thomas Ford & Partners and conservation specialists DBR Limited to carry out the work.
In 2024 the roughly £3.5 million restoration project was completed. The Friends of the Park and Subway are seeing this as the first stage in a larger project with further funding and grants being sought to maker further repairs and improve its usability as a venue.
You can find out more about visiting the Subway here.
Other remnants of The Palace
The restoration of the Subway is also part of a much wider £52 million regeneration plan for the park as a whole. The works are underway and should be completed in September 2026.
The terraces, also designed by Paxton, still survive today and are part of the project.
The upper terrace was home to the building itself and both upper and lower also had ornamental gardens on them.
You can also see six surviving sphinx sculptures. They were based on the Great Sphinx of Tanis, held in the Louvre in Paris.
There is also a surviving cast-iron column from the palace. It was excavated in 1990 from brickwork and erected on the terrace near to where it was found.
The dinosaurs
I also went to see the famous Crystal Palace Dinosaurs in the Park.
These were designed by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins in 1854, created to go alongside the Crystal Palace to show off Britain’s preeminence in natural sciences, geology and palaeontology.
They were the first ever full scale statues of extinct animals and are invaluable both historically and scientifically. Many are not accurate to how we think, based on today’s advanced expertise and evidence, these creatures looked like, but were based on the best scientific knowledge of the time.
I have written a full blog post on the Crystal Palace dinosaurs before here.
What Else Is There To See In The Park?
They have a Victorian maze, created in 1870 and one of the largest in the country.
You can see animals, such as alpacas, at the Crystal Palace Park farm.
You can also go and see the Crystal Palace Bowl.
This outdoor amphitheatre opened in 1961 and became a popular venue for music gigs. In 1971 a series of one-day music festivals started here called The Garden Parties. Pink Floyd and Elton John both performed, as well as Bob Marley. Crystal Palace Bowl was in fact where, on the 7th June 1980, Bob Marley and the Wailers performed their largest ever and final UK concert.
In 1997 a permanent stage was designed by Ian Ritchie Architects, a striking, sculptural design that has been nicknamed ‘the Laptop’.
It sadly hasn’t hosted gigs in years and there are ongoing discussions about future uses for it. It is currently seating for the Concert Cafe where you can grab a tea and cake.
If you like to read more about what is going on at the park, you can find the Crystal Palace Park Trust’s page here. There are some maintenance and improvement works going on in the park this summer, so do check it out before visiting.
Below I have marked all the spots on a map, but remember the Subway is only open for specific open days.
Thank you very much for reading, more of London’s historic spots below.
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Now that’s British!
Thank you for this most interesting post. My Father, born in the 1890s, was an architect and structural engineer. He and my Mother spoke about the wonderful Crystal Palace and how sad it was when it burnt down in 1936.
I love reading all about our beloved city, and I am amazed at how little I know about it. My grandmother was born in East Ham and my grandfather was born in Haggerston, a place very rarely spoken or written about. I ventured up to London to find their addresses but unfortunately they were bombed in the Second World War. Thank you so much for everything you write about. They are my little gems of knowledge. Regards Liz Clarke
As a child went to Crystal Palace on a no.3 bus. Dinasours were frightening, as they were in the undergrowth. My mum spoke of seeing it on fire.
We lived in Brixton , so Crystal Palace in the late 40s and 50s was a bus ride to the countryside.