The Crystal Palace Museum – a tiny, poor, located far from the center. But here are evidence of the creative genius of Victorian England, that brought again one of the wonders of the nineteenth century.

The history of the Crystal Palace fantastic. For the world exhibition of 1851, Britain has decided to build an unprecedented exhibition pavilion, a testimony to the technological leadership of the country. It was spring of 1850, before the opening of the exhibition remained a year. The contest received 245 projects, but none of them were good.

The real proposal came from Joseph Paxton – peasant's son, who worked for fifteen years as a gardener. Caring for the gardens of the Duke of Devonshire, Paxton drew attention to the strength of the leaves of the huge Victoria Regia water lilies – that, as he wrote, "natural engineering feat". The structure of the Lily leaf gave him the idea of applying modular structures for the construction of huge greenhouses. June 11, 1851 Paxton for a friendly dinner sketched the concept of the Crystal Palace (in fact, a huge greenhouse) on a sheet of pink blotting paper. It is for this project and built the Palace. Now the outline is kept in the Victoria and albert Museum.

The building length of 563 meters and a width of 139 meters was erected in just five months. Under the high glass roof planted these elms. In the Palace freely is 14 thousand exhibits from around the world. Huge space inhabit the cheeky sparrows, and when Queen Victoria asked the Prime Minister Wellington, what to do with them, he advised start-hawks Sparrow hawk. The gardener Paxton in recognition of merit received a knighthood.

After the exhibition, the Palace was moved from Hyde Park to Sydenhams hills – where there is a Museum now. Famous Brunel established a new system of magnificent fountains. Exhibitions, festivals. But on the night of 30 November 1936 the building was in flames. Simmer it arrived half of the London fire engines, but all was in vain. Director of the Palace of Henry Buckland, strolling in the night near a dog, crying, looking like a matter of life perishes. The fire was watched by 100's of thousands of Londoners. Among them was Winston Churchill, who said: "This is the end of an era".

The grandiose Palace remained only the water tower. In 1941 the British had blown up and her: she was a good reference point for Nazi bombers. In the place of greatest of the century buildings now lay in ruins.

In 1990, the American oilman Barry McKay threw his career and engaged in the organization of the Museum dedicated to Crystal Palace. In success, few believed. However, the Museum has existed for over two decades. In it – pictures, drawings, models of the Palace.

In the surrounding Museum Park is a huge terrace that once made up part of the Palace. It offers a fabulous view of the countryside of Kent. On the terrace there are two ablestik Sphinx, copies of the Louvre, and the place was a Palace, watching the monument to Joseph Paxton. Around the lake towered huge dinosaur figures set out here in 1854. The whole of the Park of the Crystal Palace – like lying next to modern London, the skeleton of a dinosaur that once plagued the world with greatness and power.