The largest and most innovative building in the world measured 563 metres long by 124 metres wide, and the height of the central transept was 33 metres. The total floor space, which covered the ground floor and galleries occupied around 9 hectares, while the display area covered over 13 kilometres. Built with astonishing speed in prefabricated glass and iron on the edge of Hyde Park, the Crystal Palace was the epitome of modern technology and design, a worthy construction to house the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, the very first World’s Fair, designed to showcase modern industrial technology, but above all to show Great Britain’s superiority at the height of its colonial and industrial power. From 1st May to 11th October, 1851, over six million people visited the monumental green house viewing and admiring manufacturing exhibits from all over the world. Half of the building west of the transept was assigned to exhibitors from Great Britain and its colonies, and strolling among the vast upper galleries amongst all sorts of objects and machinery, you could also come across a few pipes...read more
