Crystal Palace Subway

06/06/2024

Thanks to the sterling of the Friends of Crystal Palace Subway, the Subway is now being restored and it falls under the custodianship of Crystal Palace Park Trust. For future updates and to find out more about chances to visit, please head over to Crystal Palace Park Trust

10/02/2024

Great to see the next generation of these skills being developed as part of the Subway restoration...

20/01/2024

18/01/2024

31/12/2023

Wishing all our followers and supporters of the Crystal Palace Subway a Happy New Year.

As we look forward to the final touches on the restoration work completing at the Subway site in early 2024 we thought we'd look back on our most popular posts of 2023

1 The Subway courtyard revealed (December)
2 Excavation and reconstruction of the South stairway (February)
3 Open Day for the London Festival of Architecture (June)
4 Restored North staircase and LFA tidy-up (June)
5 The Crystal Palace fire 1936 (November)
6 Brickwork on the staircases (September)
7 Prototype doors and roller mechanism (March)
8 The start of the roof construction (April)
9 Glazing being fitted to the roof (October)

More info on the Crystal Palace Subway and the restoration at bit.ly/cpsubway

23/12/2023

On this day… As the restoration nears completion we remember the original opening of the Subway linking the High Level Station to the Crystal Palace on Saturday 23rd December 1865

The Morning Post of Monday 25th December 1865 reported … "The arched subway leading from the High Level Station of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway into the centre transept was opened on Saturday. The archway, which is of a very ornamental character, consists of groined arches of coloured brick, built with a view to both architectural and chromatic effect. The supports consist of fifteen octagonal columns placed in such a manner as to form four passages each ten feet in width. The length of the archway is 100 feet."

The High Level Station and Branch Line had opened a few months earlier - on 1st August 1865. An article about the opening in the London Illustrated News of 30th September 1865 included these drawings of the Station and the Subway. There are clearly some issues with scale in the Subway drawing!

Photos of the Subway taken in December 2023 as restoration nears completion:
1 - Inside the Subway - the view passengers would have as they walked from the station towards the Crystal Palace
2 - The restored courtyard looking towards the steps that led to the Crystal Palace
3 & 4 - Looking back from the steps across the courtyard towards the Subway under Crystal Palace Parade

More info on the Crystal Palace Subway and the restoration at bit.ly/cpsubway

01/12/2023

87 years ago today - the morning after the Crystal Palace fire! As dawn broke on the morning of December 1st 1936, the total destruction of the iconic Crystal Palace also marked the end of a chapter in the history of the Subway

Opened in 1865, for 70 years the Subway had been used to allow railway passengers - believed to be primarily First Class passengers - to walk under the Parade and straight into the Palace. With the destruction of the Palace, the Subway was no longer used as an entrance / exit from the High Level Station

The first photo shows the courtyard of the Subway the morning after the fire
(📸 O. J. Morris, 1st December 1936) Reproduced by kind permission of Melvyn Harrison and The Crystal Palace Foundation (crystalpalacefoundation.org.uk)

As the fire ravaged the Crystal Palace from the evening of November 30th, it reached the arches at the entrance to the Subway courtyard consuming one of the two wooden doors and damaging the roof before burning itself out. Part of a cast iron girder from the top most part of the Palace roof can be seen on the left at the top of the stairs

The second photo shows a similar view of the courtyard from the Subway before restoration work started (📸 Aug 2021) and the third how it looks today with restoration near completion (📸 Nov 2023)

More info on the Crystal Palace Subway and the restoration at bit.ly/cpsubway

30/11/2023

On this day in 1936! The Crystal Palace on Fire!

Just after 7pm on November 30th 1936 Sir Henry Buckland - the manager of the Crystal Palace - was walking his dog in the Palace grounds when he noticed a red glow. He investigated and found two of his night watchmen trying to put out a fire that had started in the women's cloakroom and spread to the central transept

The blaze took hold with alarming speed as the flames, helped by a strong wind, swept across the Palace’s acres of timber flooring, up into galleries and along glazing bars. The Penge Fire Brigade was not called until nearly 8pm and by that time the building was already an inferno

Over 400 firemen and 88 appliances from four brigades attended but despite their best efforts the Palace could not be saved. It is said that the glow from the burning Palace could be seen across eight counties and an estimated 100,000 people made their way to Sydenham Hill to watch the blaze

Buckland said, "In a few hours we have seen the end of the Crystal Palace. Yet it will live in the memories not only of Englishmen, but the whole world"

Today the Crystal Palace Subway - built to connect the Palace to the High Level Station - is our main reminder of the splendour of the Palace. Find out more about the Subway and its restoration at bit.ly/cpsubway

20/10/2023

The glazing for the new courtyard roof is almost complete… Opened in 1865 the courtyard provided a covered route from the High Level Station / Subway into the Crystal Palace. This is the first time the courtyard has been fully covered since the original roof was damaged in the 1936 fire that destroyed the Crystal Palace.

📸 19/10/2023

More info on the Crystal Palace Subway and the restoration at bit.ly/cpsubway

06/10/2023

As the Subway restoration nears completion… work has started on laying the new courtyard floor

More info on the subway restoration at bit.ly/cpsubway

17/09/2023

We are excited to join Crystal Palace Park Trust in celebrating the park handover and look forward to the Trust managing the newly restored subway once works are complete.

We’d also like to celebrate the fantastic support from so many volunteers, businesses, and locals over the last 11 years that has made this project possible. FCPS will continue to provide updates on the restoration via our social media channels until the works are complete. Keep an eye out on Crystal Palace Park Trust’s channels to follow the subway’s future development.

A message from the Park Trust - Crystal Palace Park Trust is grateful for all the hard work and dedication from the Friends of Crystal Palace Subway in getting this stunning location to a place where we can be a part of its next chapter.

For more information about the Crystal Palace Park Trust and its plans please follow their social media pages Crystal Palace Park Trust park () and visit their website crystalpalaceparktrust.org