The Crystal Palace - Later Years

Later Years

While the original palace cost £150,000 (£13.1 million as of 2012), the move to Sydenham cost £1,300,000—(£96.5 million as of 2012), burdening the company with a debt it never repaid, partly because admission fees were depressed by the inability to cater for Sunday visitors: many people worked every day except the Sabbath, when the Palace had always been closed. The Lord's Day Observance Society held that people should not be encouraged to work at the Palace or drive on Sunday, and that if people wanted to visit, then their employers should give them time off during the working week. However, the Palace was open on Sundays by May 1861, when 40,000 visitors came.

In 1871 the world's first cat show, organised by Harrison Weir, was held at The Crystal Palace.

By the 1890s the Palace's popularity and state of repair had deteriorated; the appearance of stalls and booths had made it a more downmarket attraction.

A colourful description of a visit to the Crystal Palace appears in John Davidson's poem 'The Crystal Palace' published in 1909.

Robert Baden-Powell first noticed the interest of girls in Scouting while attending a Boy Scout meeting at Crystal Palace in 1909. This observation later led to the formation of Girl Guides, then Girl Scouts.

In 1911, the Festival of Empire was held at the building to mark the coronation of George V and Queen Mary.