Joseph Paxton was an inspired genius and your video makes that clear. Much of his design work appears to have been abandoned in the second building, something I was not aware of before.
I found very odd the scale of these old constructions, like these huge all glass palaces, or the WW II airship hangars.. I know we have now big constructions, but imagining that for that time.. i've seen a picture of an old wooden barn with dozen meters high... (also burned down rs)
Love the new audio quality, although I believe you should smoothen your tone because the new mic makes your tonal stresses sound somewhat "jagged". Great video still!
Ah, David Dimbleby. I will never forget the look on his face as he reported in June 2016 that we had voted to exit from the E.U. A sight of total dejection due to him and his like at the BBC bubble failing to pick up on the national mood.
My father in law was one of the thousands of Londoners that witnessed the Crystal Palace burn down. He was also evacuated from London during the Blitz.
@@pianoman1396 That's amazing. He must have been able to see the glow of the fires during the blitz too. He was right under the battle of Britain's main combat areas. I wonder if he saw any dogfights.
One of my grandfather's early memories was watching the Crystal Palace burn down, from a hill in North London. At the time the city's biggest fire since 1666. We buried him a few months ago, he was one of the generation who lived to see all the Victorians did wither due to their lesser successors
Hello, as usual the video is lovely, i really appreciate the details included in the story and the accompanying images and schematics. The audio quality is really an immense upgrade :3
Great video. The scale of the structure at Sydenham must have been truly awe-inspiring. At the site site today it's difficult to imagine such a building ever existed there. To me, the most similar thing that survives is Alexandra Palace but despite being positioned on top of a hill is probably not as imposing as the Crystal Palace once was.
So it was a giant Meccano set with plate glass windows which was quite different when it was constructed the second time, amazing. By far the best documentary I have ever seen on Chrystal Palace, Thanks.
One of your best videos yet! In a little over a year they went from the idea for the Great Exhibition to the grand opening. Can you imagine that happening today? The farcical saga of the Millennium Dome provides a stark contrast; they hadn't even decided what to do with it almost until it (eventually) opened. These two show the different outcomes when first you let engineers (yes, Paxton was most definitely an engineer) and latterly bureaucrats, run a major project. I can only doff my (metaphorical) cap in appreciation of everyone involved in the Crystal Palace. And I appreciate the interesting, and new to me, mention that the second structure was not identical to the first; I also wonder if either iteration had solid foundations, was piled into the ground, or had some other solution.
Superb video, doing full justice to the magnificence, and magnificent demise of this irreplaceable building. "A blazing arch of lucid glass Leaps like a fountain from the grass"
Sorry but am I the only one on here that is hearing what sounds like a synthesised voice in the narration? It sounds odd for some reason. Everyone is going on how the new audio is so good. But I'm finding the narration a bit jarring on what is a good subject.
Mate you are spot on I made it almost to the eighth minute mark but cannot stand listening to this AI drone voice any longer. To bad because I like this type of architecture so much.
Very enjoyable video but just a point about Baird Television - they tried the Farnsworth electronic camera but couldn't get it work and this was destroyed in the fire. The electronic system of Marconi/EMI was adopted after Baird's system was discontinued at Alexandra Palace, not Farnsworth. Also, by 1936 John Logie Baird himself was not directly involved with Baird Television Limited which was then owned by Gaumont British..
Another excellent documentary - many thanks. One of the Egyptian obelisks at the entrance to the original great Exhibition was procured, some how, by the Marling family of Stroud and sits in the middle of a field on the side of the lower slops of Selsley hill. It has no public access and is often surrounded by the farmer's cows. Must try and get to it for a picture. The costs of such a structure was high, but not as high as the Millennium Dome of £790 Million, which is also a temporary tent type structure. As you say, it served its purpose of demonstrating the grandiose of the Victorian era and the notorious Empire. All this is long gone.
When I was a boy in outback Australia houses often had an outdoor area like a pergola that had chicken wire walls stuffed with dried spinifex grass. At the top of the wall there was a drip irrigation system. When the breeze blew through the wet spinifex it cooled the people sitting inside. It was usually open on one side. It worked best in low humidity areas like NW Australia where I grew up
It wasn’t two buildings - it was one, they built it in one place, dismantled it and put it back up in south London. If it was two then we’d still have a version of it, instead it completed burnt down, nothing survives now - because it was one building
Nice job! I would note however that while Philo T Farnsworth had a deal with Baird Television Limited, this extended little beyond the Farnsworth Image Dissector (camera) being used by Bairds at the Crystal Palace and at the BBC installation at Alexandra Palace in North London. The BBC Television Service was broadcast from the latter location and initially alternated between the 240-line Baird mechanical system and the Marconi-EMI all-electronic 405-line system. In February 1937 the Baird system was abandoned and the Marconi-EMI system was used solely from then on in providing a "high definition" (405-line) TV service. Farnsworth was NOT involved directly with the BBC Television Service - the all-electronic 405-line system that became the eventual international standard was that of Marconi-EMI.
I believe there's a discrepancy in this video. At 05:22 you say the budget to build the palace in 1951 was £85,800. You go on to say at 05:58 that the structure was completed on time and on budget. However, at 18:56 you say that the original palace cost £150,000 in 1851. That means it cost DOUBLE the original estimate.
I wonder if they could have saved the building by turning it into some combination of housing, office and retail space. Obviously, it would have to have been fireproofed and upgraded in various ways as the internal structure needed to separate the spaces got filled in, but some of the open, glassed-in space could remain to remind those living, working and shopping there of the history of the structure.
@@stephengraham5099 - Well to be fair his voice does sound a little different to what it used to be in his older videos, I’m guessing it’s gone through some sort of ‘processing’.
Classic British cock up. Cheap and cheerful. It will crash and burn as all such items ever have. Titanic, Comet and the entire manufacturing industry sends it's condolences. Even if it seems half a miracle that they manage to burn down a building of glass and steel. Amazing really.
Seems a bit mean spirited given a temporary exhibition building designed to last perhaps a year actually lasted nearer 80? No pleasing some folk I guess?
@@conradharcourt8263 You will never know and you also will never be able to afford it either. Besides, contribution to society, Crystal Palace, more like a self frankincenseing, self embalming navel show for the super-entitled jumped up aristocracy.
bleeding edge tech is risky. If you are gonna invent the modern world is gonna be some health and safety mishaps... and lest you forget- Titanic sinking revolutionised maritime safety regulations and ship design- and Comet led to a proper understanding of metal fatigue, changed aircraft design rules and massively improved airframe resilience and passenger safety... you dont get those advances without the initial experiment and failure
Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam ." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window ? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment ?
