Crystal Palace Station is Needlessly Magnificent 

Jago - you're definitely a glass act! Who else would have gone to such panes to tell this story? Who else could have made the convoluted twists and turns as crystal clear as you have?

I’m so happy that the curse of landing up at the wrong station has been lifted from you today 😂

"Victorian Disneyland!" Sums it up beautifully...My teacher in junior school saw the glow in the sky when it burned down in 1936..nearly as bad as the blittz in 1940! Another nice one , Jago, lets hear more of Crystal Palace...( thinks.."you're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!)

At certain times, Crystal Palace station is an ethereal, almost magical place. For example: on a warm Sunday afternoon with a slight breeze, when the place is deserted and the only sounds are those of the pigeons occasionally fluttering about, and suddenly without warning a non-stopping train emerges from the nearby tunnel portal and hurtles through the station and is gone almost as soon as it arrived, and the whole scene settles back into its previous torpor as though in a dream.

There is also the somewhat remarkable and short-lived experimental Crystal Palace Pneumatic Railway built in 1864. There's a good Wiki article about this curious 'tube railway' that had a coach propelled by air pressure in a tunnel. Perhaps the most interesting thing about it is that it's probably still there but has been lost, in the sense that nobody seems too sure where the tunnel is.

Sometimes, one needs a bit of grandeur in one's everyday life, and this station can give this feeling. It's as apparent as crystal.

As a South Londoner who has been going to CP Park since I was kid, I can't tell you how much I would have loved to have seen The Crystal Palace in all its glory. I often think of it when I walk in the park and imagine what it was like. Now I just put up with supporting the football team!

When I was a working guy I spent an awful lot of time at that station, especially late in the evening coming home… often I had the feeling of being on some Surrealist stage set, like something designed by Giorgio de Chirico or Paul Delvaux for a film by Alfred Hitchcock, to the extent that it’s platforms still crop up in dreams ten years later… spooky is as spooky does!

Imagine a 17 year old Dutch boy traveling to London by train for the first time in his life and getting of the train at Christal Palace (there was a model shop across the road then in the late seventies). OK I was familiar with Antwerp Central (black with sooth in those days). But how grant could British Railway Architecture be if they build a station like this in the middle of nowhere. After my time at the modelshop I took quite some time walking around the station wondering about its odd set-up and marvalous construction. Thx for reminding me of that encounter.

There are extensive vaults underneath the road from the High Level Station to the palace entrance that are currently being rebuilt or refurbished. It would be great to see these in your future high level station video plus any information you uncover about the pneumatic railway in the park itself. 😊

Many of these victorian stations are a sight to behold. As a child, I used Peckham Rye and North Dulwich Stations a great deal. Both rather splendid buildings in their own right

The first ever recording of a concert was made by an employee of Edison inside the Crystal Palace in 1888. It was a performance of Israel in Egypt by Handel, and you can find it on RU-vid. Quite ghostly... More time has passed since that recording than between Handel's death and the concert.

My Dad was working on the railways and said that the glow from the fire could be seen from Newhaven in Sussex. Of course, workers there formed a football club in 1905, playing at 'The Nest' which is where Selhurst Depot now stands. They called themselves Crystal Palace and were nicknamed The Glaziers until a certain Malcolm Allison decided to change that to The Eagles in the 1970's.

Crystal Palace was an annual visit on the August bank holiday for the motor sport revival. The Crystal Palace track was a top flight venue for both car and bike racing up to the early 70s

My Dad saw The Crystal Palace burning as he cycled across the Hog's Back South of Guildford and some 30 miles away. I could never really understand what there was to burn in a building made of glass and iron. Great video as always, Jago.

It is a shame so many of our grand buildings have been lost to history. Sure some of the modern glass skyscrapers look nice but that thing must have been immense.

Truly, the Crystal Palace was the peak of Victorian beautiful engineering. It still stirs my heart to see images of it, and moves me near to tears to see its destruction. Winston Churchill was right when he commented on its destruction, "It is the end of an era." On fun little side note is that late in its life the Palace served as Britain's first television studio. Scottish inventor John Logie-Baird's electro-mechanical television was starting to catch on in the 1920's-30's, but filming for it required a lot of light. What better place then to stage early TV productions than a building made mostly of glass? Sadly, Logie-Baird was facing serious competition from Philo Farnsworth's all-electronic television, and while the two systems were level-pegged for awhile the 1936 fire destroyed all of Logie-Baird's broadcasting equipment and basically ended his TV dreams.

7:10 If it wasn't for the platform sign at the edge, that shot could have been composed by Canaletto...

I grew up there and walked about the foundations many times. A tragic case. It should have been kept in good condition as a testament to Great Britain’s history, but greed and money got in the way. A fire? What a shame. I live in France now and have done so for quite some time. They appreciate their history and keep their old structures in tact. The Crystal palace and the high level station should have been preserved. In between the station and the palace was an underground vaulted walkway and I played a concert there in the late 1970’s with an orchestra from the All-saints church which was at the end of church road. This ran from the palace to South Norwood hill. I also filmed a pop video there in 1992. It had always been closed but was opened occasionally for special purposes. A part of my past. The Crystal Palace was an incredible building and should still be there.

It would be great if they could link this to the Croydon Tramlink one day

I remember in the seventies the walkway through the main building was in a dreadful state, pigeons occupying the roof with their droppings covering everything. Very few people used the station. It was a relief when the new little ticket office was built to see that the Crystal Palace design was made use of instead of there being the usual prefab box of a ticket office being installed and the old building was shut completely. It was wonderful to see the refurbished building and the new curved roof a few years ago, it shows that someone cares about the heritage of the place. Maybe one day you will do a video on the underground pneumatic railway that ran under a part of the park? There is a legend that the carriage is still buried underground and full of the skeletons of the last passengers. There was also a proposal to build an underground monorail from Crystal Palace to central London, yes really. If you look for Ken Russel's early film "Amelia and the Angel" it shows scenes of the disused former high level station. It has only recently been revealed that during World War II the closed park was the location of a top secret factory where the radar equipment for aircraft was made.

I’m glad you got to the right station this time. I was worried that if that thing kept happened, you would have accidentally ended up in London, Ontario

You sometimes wonder if the 1936 Crystal Palace fire was the same sort of building spontaneous combustion that befell the Crooked House in the Black Country over the last weekend....

And in New York,we had the late great Pennsylvania Station,which was based on the Baths of Caracala! It too was an expanse of iron and glass,and during the early and mid 60's,I made many a trip,into and out of that immense station! On the outbound side,you could see the GG-1, pulling your train to Pennsylvania,from the top,quite a sight to an impressionable lad,otherwise magnificent! Oh,the memories! Thank you 😇 😊!! Oh,yes,forgot!! The Bronx Botanic Gardens,runs a Christmas train exposition every year,so its close as most people could get to the feel of the old Crystal Palace,in the current conditions! Again,thank you!! Thank you 😇 😊!!

Nice midweek surprise Jago. Thanks! Steve Marsh did the same today. You're obviously on the same psychic wavelength as him.

My grandfather saw the palace burn from north London. It lit up the sky in a way then never known...the blitz made that way less of a novelty...

It’s crystal clear that Jago is a glass of high level content.

Learning about the history of a station AND the Crystal Palace - perfect! I saw the palace mentioned now and then but never learned about what ultimately happened to it. Must have been a quite impressive sight in its time and probably still would be today.

"Feels a little...big" - best YT closer of the day!

Last time I visited Crystal Palace was 2016 and my phone died on the journey. Asked station staff if there was a pay phone at the station but she didn't understand the concept.

I often get the train here from Brockley when taking my dogs out for a long walk around Crystal Palace Park, it is a very grand station that just oozes with Victorian architecture. We also go to Sydenham Hill Woods where you can walk along part of old upper level track until to get to Crescent Wood Tunnel which is blocked off due to safety reasons.

Crystal Palace High Level station would have been the most magnificent station to visit. Remenants were visible until relatively recently, but most of now either covered over or hidden behind fences.

I used to pass through or change trains at this station during the late 60s/early 70s. Still remember what it was like on a winter's evening. With plenty of gas lights (mantles et al) the atmosphere was like something out of a Hammer Horror.

Had to make a few trips there earlier this year. A lovely station indeed

My Maternal Grandfather left the Royal Navy in 1935 and moved to London, to work for the General Post Office, where he bought a house in Streatham Vale. My mother was born in 1926 and her elder sister in 1920, so as a treat for her 16th Birthday, Granddad took his daughters to see the Crystal Palace.... three days before it burnt down. Mum said it was an amazing building, despite being past its prime. Granddad even took some photographs of it, to show how magnificent it was. Years later, when we were all at Granddad's bungalow in Bognor Regis, he showed us his photograph album of his World Travels in the Royal Navy and and the pictures of the Crystal Palace. He commented upon their stroke of luck in visiting the Crystal Palace when they did. The following weekend would have been too late.

i hope you never stop making your videos. i watch several train nerd channels and while they are very good, your style is just brilliant. i always get happy when i see a new vid from you. even when you do your ”other” videos they are well researched and presented👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Some years back, I happened to be shown some of the Thomas Cook archives.Cook was an itinerant preacher who approached the railway companies to create excursions around the north for people to attend religious meetings. This moved on to arranging hotel and travel bookings, and he was active in the success of the Crystal Palace Exhibition. So it was that success which prompted the rail companies afterwards to set up the reconstructed Palace at Sydenham. Incidentally, a crystal palace was built in Sydney for the 1888 Centenary of Australia, near the--what was then--rail terminus.Cook was ,incidentally ,the creator of the Swiss hotel industry: he told the Swiss government that he could bring in voyagers, but that they would need superior accommodation

I dream of being well connected and to have lost my raisin debt.

My favourite station too, beautiful to use.

I love this station! When I saw your dinosaur video I was hoping you'd do a video on the station too. Crystal Palace is such a gem.

the palace burnt down on my grandmas 20th birthday and was only a few streets away from the site so could feel the heat from her road

I was impressed and somewhat bemused by the complexity of Crystal Palace railway station when I visited to tick off visiting another London Pearson designed church nearby. You have answered all the questions here with to its splendour and railway complexity. I did also walk up to the park and site of the Crystal Palace. Yes please to more of the history and information about this place.

If you want to find other bits of the palace, they're in The Fens on Holme Fen which used to be Wittlesea Mere and was drained in 1851 to be turned into farmland. It was apparently the next biggest lake in England to Windermere but only a few feet deep. Some pillars from the Crystal Palace were hammered into the exposed lake bed till their tops were at bed level. The idea was that the bed would settle and dry and shrink and expose the pillar and thus allow shrinkage to be measured. When I was living in Kings Lynn I cycled out to one. There's a wee information board beside it. About 1867, the land had shrunk to sea level. By 1971, the base of the post was exposed and needed propping up and a new post inserted beside it. The land has shrunk about another meter since and is now about 12 feet or so below sea level. This has always intrigued me, simply because wouldn't whatever the post was hammered into and so sitting upon be shrinking too, and how would that have been accommodated for in measurements.

Liked the photo of the old map on the wall in an entrance to Victoria Station, not many know of it as now has cladding over it but at least has been preserved.

Near the furthest end of the crystal palace, if situated at crystal palace station, there still remained, right up until the late 1990s the original burnt out shell of the old employees housing quarters. The floor had bright mosaics made from pottery, most of the base of the actual super structure and old and decrepit burnt furnishings were scattered about there. It seemed that every few years the site was cleaned and maintained(weeds pulled, cobbled paths cleared ect) but the physical remnants of the building was never moved or destroyed. When I was under 10, the site was surrounded by barbed wire fences ect, but in the 1990s the put up a massive grey fence, much like the one you showed, and that permanently obscured the site from view, and made it so you couldn't go in there in anymore. It was a fascinating place, old furniture, decorations and various materials littered to whole site and it was like walking into the olden days. The mosaics on the floor were of peacocks and lions ect plus musical instruments. I used to play there all the time, but as I said they just shut it away and I understand why, but they couldve made it into an exhibit of some kind because those ruins would be 100 years old by now. I haven't been up there in years, but it might still be there.

At one time we were Regal and our exhibitions were a Mecca to come to and had an Empire. Now all we have is an Odeon

It would be great to hear about the high level station. There are remains of some of that railway in Sydenham hill woods.

I still have many fond memories of the area, the park and the station. Around 1980 there was a proposal for a railway heritage centre in the space where the Orchard Grove estate now sits. I always felt it was a shame that the plan failed to take off. The plans at the time were quite detailed.

I'm glad you made that crystal clear.

Been a Palace football club fan all my life, and I always go to Norwood Junction or Selhurst station for the games. Once though, I found myself going to Crystal Palace station for the first time, and I wondered why it was so beautiful. Thank you for making this video explaining just that!

Good video and a interesting station with a great history, and I agree too it's one of the best looking stations in London.

I've lived in Crystal Palace since 2011 and I must say it's an interesting feeling to walk around the old palace grounds knowing what once stood there. Almost haunting, it's just people throwing frisbees to their dogs now. I'm happy the low level station remains as a remnant of what once was, but man I wish they kept the high level!

1:37 That quite the timeframe. I think that’s commendable.

Another brilliant short story. Nice shots too. Btw, Electrostars are beauties...

What a remarkable transformation the Low Level station is from the crumbling edifice with which I was familiar in the 1970s. At that time I lived opposite the site of the former High Level station. Of course, money for station refurbishment is unlimited in London and the southeast (he added bitterly). Not so here in the northwest where a vandalised 1970s-style bus shelter is apparently sufficient for our needs.

So was the Crystal Palace though.

There was also a Crystal Palace High Level Station which closed in 1954. As late as the 1990s my parents and grandparents still talked of catching a train from "the Low Level station", never Crystal Palace Station.

Good architecture can lift the human spirit. I'm always filled a little bit of the old wonder whenever I take a train from this station.

It makes me sad that the Crystal Palace burned down and they no longer hold the great exhibition anymore. The building looked amazing and elegant, and the engineering feats on display were equally impressive.

Travelling back from Charing Cross to Blackheath last week, I heard a family mention you as we went through Waterloo East and admiring the design of the station.

Lovely presentation, thank you! Looking forward to your HL coverage, not least because of many afternoons spent exploring the pathway along the abandoned branch from Nunhead \m/

Paxton designed the gorgeous semi circle windows at Buxton station!

As a child I thought this the most sinister building I knew. The stairs down from the booking hall to the platforms used to scare me rigid. That was during the day. Coming home at night it was awful! No idea why. Just did.

Jago go to Oxford where IIRC there is an old station which used some of the same brackets which was used in the Crystal Palace. You get a twofer....A visit to an old station and footage of parts of Crystal Palace.

In the bottom right hand corner at 7:40, you can see one of the ticket machines it was once my job to service and repair. I have had that thing in pieces more often than I care to remember!

Hello Jago, I have just had the pleasure of seeing your “ Crystal Palace video. Than you do much for this. I travelled the Birkbeck - West Norwood section of this line and discovered delights of CP and frequently travelled on, what I know as the 08 train that stopped at CP LL to investigate then delights of this station before my usually “36”(headcode) train arrived to continue my journey to Birkbeck. At that time (1967-1970) I became interested in the Crystal Palace and it’s railways. I remember my mother talking about the red glow in the sky, the burning down of the Crystal Palace seen from Tonbridge in Kent as “that was a significant/some fire” The high level station had long gone so I could only see the Low level station that still existed. A lot had changed but there were still remanants of the past, now all erased forever, only memories. Jago, please do a video on the High Level. The last train running a special in 1954. There are many lost lines. Best wishes from Oxfordshire, Doug.

The WEL&CPR was a joint venture by the LBSCR and the London Chatham & Dover Railway to give both access to the west End using a new station at Victoria - diverging at Crystal Palace towards Norwood Junction on the former's line from London Bridge and to Beckenham Junction to meet up with the LCDR's line. The two companies rapidly fell out and each built their own more direct line, via Norbury and via West Dulwich respectively. The two halves of Victoria still have distinctly different architecture, and indeed a wall was built separating the two halves - not removed until both companies became part of the new Southern Railway in 1923. The distinction between the LCDR and the more upmarket LBSCR was referenced by Oscar Wilde when his character Ernest Worthing is at pains to emphasise that the left luggage office in which he was found as a baby was that of "The Brighton Line", only to be rebuffed by Lady Bracknell's retort that "The line is immaterial"

You might want to visit one of the flower / produce displays at the Paxton Horticultural Society, Headingly Leeds (combine with visit to Middledon Railway and Armley Mills (and the Armoury museum if you are in to that

Next time you're in Edinburgh, Jago, pay the National Museum of Scotland a visit. The three storey Great Hall of the old Royal Scottish Museum building is actually copied from Paxton's design for the Crystal Palace.

The "Morden" of the LSBC Terrier(?) would of course be Morden Road Halt ( which was named Morden ) for a while. Now a tramlink stop

A few years ago Thameslink trains from the Gatwick line were running from East Croydon through Norwood Junction where they were routed via Crystal Palace. The trains reached Blackfriars via Gypsy Hill, Tulse Hill and Herne Hill. It's quite a maze of lines, and the trains were usually held up by other suburban services. It's a lot quicker now that trains run via London Bridge.

Crystal Palace is indeed a beautiful station, many thanks again for a top video.

I will have to visit there my next time in the UK.

I like the use of maps in this video!

It's always awesome seeing a Jago Hazzard vid!!!

I agree. This station is pretty and big.

My Grandmother remembered watching the glow from the Crystal Palace fire from Croydon.

My grandmother lived in Highgate and could see the Palace burning down. It must have been so sad.

The West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway was the way the LBSCR reached Victoria Station and today forms a part of the Brighton Main Line.

They built magnificent railway stations because they could.

I hope 🤞 that one ☝️ day, there’s a new palace one ☝️ day. What a crystalline video, Sir. J. Hazzard.

I like the fact that Platform 1 and 2 look like something from The Railway Children

Will mention that there are tours of the CP High Level station as it now is.

I think this is a London station I've never visited properly, apart from passing through it occasionally. Definitely need to actually get out at it next time I'm in the capital.

Hi Jago, long time subscriber, but first time commenter here. I felt I needed to thank you for covering Crystal Palace station. As a young lad, I always considered the station a mini London Bridge esk station, with both terminating platforms and through platforms. I always loved visiting the station thinking it very grand (we normally used boring old Penge West!

I live in Sydenham, I'm in the park all the time. It's a great place to just relax. One part of me would love for it to be rebuilt, maybe as a market and botantical garden. But the other part of me loves how quiet it is. You can see Biggin Hill Airport and the Dartford Crossing from the highest points of the park too. The hordings are down to events happening - quite a lot this summer. They'll be gone by September.

A far too belated note of thanks for these small gems of specific history. London holds a special place in my memory and the Underground (and Overground, for that matter) was always more than just a means of conveyance to me. It still seems like such an aspirational achievement, even in the 21st century.

We went from the amazing structure of the Crystal Palace....to a giant plastic body in a huge circus tent. That's progress!!

I remember reading about the Crystal Palace and seeing photos of it when I was a youngster, and was devastated to learn that it had burned down a dozen years before I was born -- how could a building of iron and glass burn down? Crystal Palace has remained a subject of interest for me, so this was fun to see. The practicalities of such a building/attraction are almost as much fun as the architecture. Transportation (so many stations), maintenance (who washed all those windows?), heating (how much coal did it take to make it livable in winter) -- obsessive history buffs want to know!

And thanks a lot Jago !! 👍

Interesting! It's good that cathedral of a station survives and is well looked after - unlike the gargantuan palace itself or the former High Level station.

The 1980s booking hall went to the East Anglian Railway Museum in Essex. It featured in a planning application as part of a new exhibition hall which didn’t quite get through planning. Thing the parts are still there in storage

Ah, Crystal Palace - I always thought it must have been boiling hot there in the summer! It does look a very lovely and cared for station :)

Gotta say I'm glad you spoke about it. I live in Sydenham, so live very near.

Excellent video Mr H. My favourite London station by far. Based my model railway on the high level station (so i'll be looking forward to your video on that !). Thank you.

I recall seeing a newsreel of the Palace burning down, I remember the arched roof collapsing in the film. I saw it in about 1962. "Time to Remember" I think the program was called.

I didn't realise that the crystal palace-style booking hall had been demolished. I clearly haven't been there since the Overground came! The high level subway is being restored but not idea if there is anything visible. I wonder what they are doing to the sphinxes? Are there still decapitated statues? There is a bust of Paxton somewhere near the sports centre.

I agree, when I visited it was lovely!

I used to go to Crystal Palace Sports Center for Sports on a school day, I learnt Squash and Trampoline, although I mainly stood watching the crush of my school days Ms............ Sports teacher.

5:50 that shot is really nice.