Jurassic Park

I'd forgotten how mad Crystal Palace Park is and how much I love it.

After the Great Exhibition of 1851, Joseph Paxton's glittering Crystal Palace was dismantled, moved from Hyde Park and rebuilt in Penge on the top of Sydenham Hill.  The grounds were landscaped and developed and Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins was commissioned to build the world's first ever life-size models of dinosaurs.  He did this while drunk following instructions from one of his friends, a respected paleontologist, biologist and founder of the Natural History Museum, Sir Richard Owen.  The public loved the models, they were a huge attraction in the park, models of the models were sold at £30 a pop and Hawkins even held a glitzy New Year's Eve party for his friends inside the giant Iguandon model in 1853.  

Unfortunately, progress in paleontology and changing public taste led to the models being discredited as anatomically inaccurate and a bit duff.  After the Great Fire that reduced the Crystal Palace to cinders in 1936, the statues fell into ruin and were mostly forgotten and obscured by the plants.

It wasn't until 1952 that Victor Martin decided to repair some of the models, and then in 2002 they were totally renovated, brought back to life (as much as dead things can be) and given Grade I Listed Status. Hooray!

Now - they are ridiculous.  One looks like a giant squirrel eating a tree.  But they are a brilliant reminder that we think we know everything now, but in fifty years time people are going to be laughing at us too.

If you're interested, the Crystal Palace dinosaurs influenced Dickens' writing in Bleak House (1853), H G Wells mentioned them in Kipps, and Dorothy L Sayers, Penelope Lively and Paul Theroux have all set scenes in their books in the dinosaur park.  

Edit: And, I've just found out that there's a Topsy and Tim book set in CP called 'Topsy and Tim meet the Monsters' which I now need to get!

It was a lovely day, but freezing. Sal and I also popped into the Crystal Palace petting zoo and stroked some more sheep and goats.

I've got the back-to-school blues.