The Crystal Palace Disappearing Act

The Crystal Palace Disappearing Act

The Crystal Palace Disappearing Act

The most wonderful thing about Hyde Park besides being the best place in London in which to take a stroll or to pop over from a Park Lane hotel for a morning jog is that it has borne witness to so many amazing feats of engineering, design, charity and entertainment which still continue to this day.

It remains a national loss that Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace no longer stands where it once did; an architectural wonder of the age, built for the Great Exhibition of 1851. Its legacy can be seen in the Natural History, Science and Victoria and Albert museums which its resulting revenue helped to found.

Never fear, however, for the Park does still contain its own monuments. The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial fountain by Kathryn Gustafson south of the Serpentine commemorates the love of a single person for her people and the resulting love of that people for a single person. A brisk walk to the northeast will take you to the Speaker's Corner, a forum for those more Ciceronian among us to rally publicly against perceived injustices and provoke debate, all in the spirit of free speech. Frequented in its time by intellectual luminaries like Karl Marx, Lenin and George Orwell, Speaker's Corner exists as a living monument to British tolerance and the exchange of ideas.

And then there's the wide range of musical talent that have played within the Park's confines: The Who! Rolling Stones! Pavarotti! Queen! (That last one managing to pull in 200,000 screaming fans.) Not to mention of course the Proms in the Park events, playing live to 17,000 attendees every year since 1996. No better unification of dazzling creativity with the political reflections the Park is so famous for engendering can be found than with the 2005 Live 8 concert, which combined with other concerts around the world to combat poverty. Live musical acts still play regularly in Hyde Park throughout the year.

Hyde Park has remained one of Britain's treasures ever since Charles II opened it to the public in 1637. Situated within the middle of London, and a perfect place to visit regularly for anybody staying in one of the many luxurious Park Lane hotels nearby, the Park should be cherished as a lasting reminder and living testament to the power of the human spirit, and as a lovely place to walk around in on a sunny day.

POST COMMENT

How having a Portable Alarm System can Keep You Safer The Complete Breath In Yoga Pest Control Exterminator – Safest Insecticide Bug Killers Check antifreeze Mesa AZ Higher Beer Prices on the Way as Barley Costs Increase Issues With the NexGen CR-Flex Could Lead To Recall Beware the private lending list peddlers Redhook Goes Back to Basics for Their Birthday How To Reduce Stretch Marks - Everything You Need to Understand September 11th Budweiser Makes Strides in Reducing Water Consumption A Wooden Tool Chest Is a Treasure to Last a Lifetime Dogfish Head Reduces Their Distribution Lines