The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-25 00:00:00

THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

The recent melancholy accident, involving as it did so
serious a loss of life, has attracted to the progress of the
works at Sydenham an unusual degree of attention. The
public have been pained to hear of so distressing an
occurrence in the execution of an undertaking dedicated
peculiarly to themselves. Its accidental character the
coroner's inquest has placed beyond a doubt, and the
general sympathy excited is manifested by a subscription
list which we hope will receive, wide and liberal support
from the benevolent. Nearly all enterprises of the
same extent are attended with casualties of a similar
description, less severe and therefore less startling, it is
true, but still in the aggregate heavy and sad enough.
The wars of former times hardly involved greater sacri-
fices of life than those through which civilisation now
pursues her course of peaceful and material progress.
On the sea, in the mine, on the railway, or in
the construction of public works, it is every-
where the same. We read of these mishaps, and
are shocked by them for the hour, but the requirements
of the world soon cl-se in around us again, and the un-
dertaking, with all its risks, which yesterday made so
many orphans and widows, is going on more rapidly
than ever to-day. This constancy of industry to her
purpose- -this courage that will not be put back from
what it has once resolved to achieve—this nerve which
finds fresh hands to accomplish what others have
perished in attempting—are surely instructive things
to look at and consider aright. Such a spectacle may
now be witnessed at Sydenham. The extraordinary
novelty and boldness of the work to be performed taxes
to its full measure that adventurous spirit, bordering
almost on rashness, which distinguishes our artisan
class. Labouring away, often on the most precarious
footing, at heights varying from 100 to 150, and even
200 feet, where one false step is instant death, the
workpeople of the new palace, perched aloft on scaffold-
ing and girder, look more like flies than men ; nor can
one fancy how, in such situations, any presence of mind
or energy can be spared by them from the first and most
necessary duty of self-preservation. The completion of
the upper galleries now enables visitors to understand
the difficulties of working coolly at such giddy elevations.
However great the provisions made for security under
such circumstances, it is impossible not to be struck with
the audacious confidence which must be habitually exer-
cised by the men. Take, for example, the fifth gallery tier
on the north front of the centre transept, and look down.
You are on the level from which men and scaffolding
tumbled together last week, and can conceive how awful
the smash must have been. The old building in Hyde
Park would not at its highest point have reached to
your feet, and yet you are only where the great
arch begins to spring. It is the gigantic design of the
new palace which renders all the details of construction
so formidable and perilous, which makes such calls upon
the nerves of those employed on it, and which invests
the progress of the works at this moment with such ad-
ditional interest. While that design existed merely on
paper, or was only realized up to a certain point, it was
impossible fully to appreciate its magnitude and gran-
deur. Now the sense of both is impressed upon you,
not only by the state of the works, but by the labours
of the men employed.
That such a building, so vast, so novel, so full of
light and splendour, and so majestically placed, should
be rising near London for purposes of public instruc-
tion and recreation ; that it should be undertaken as
a commercial speculation, and that it should engage
such a variety of talent in its construction and em-
bellishment, must fill with emotion every man, how-
ever ordinary in sentiment, who now pays a visit to
Sydenham. More significant evidence does not exist
anywhere among us of the progress which this country is
making. After a period during which between servile
imitation on the one band, and gross vulgarity on the
other, the taste of the people languished, we are at
length, in the way we like best, supplied with a true
realisation of that progressive spirit which, gathering
all the knowledge and strength it can from the paSt and
the present, faces boldly and hopefully the future. The
industrious classes "of this metropolis understand well
the importance and the grandeur of an institution which
will be at once their palace and their university. On
every holiday they repair in crowds to the building,
watch its growth with curiosity, and anticipate the new
pleasures which it will place within their reach. The
interest which they thus manifest in its progress is not
inferior to that which they displayed in Hyde Park, and
every appearance seems to promise for the undertaking an
unprecedented success From a quiet country retreat
Sydenham has suddenly been converted into a centre
of attraction, where great hotels are run up in a few
weeks, where innumerable building speculations are on
foot, where new railways push their way for a coming
traffic, and where the majesty of the people is to esta-
blish itself in its own Windsor. Wherever you go an a
clear day around London, the palace attracts your eye.
From Blackheath, from Richmond, from Hampstead, and
from every other elevated situation around, it is plainly
discernible. Such a structure requires no advertisement,
but proclaims itself. When it was first started, we ven-
tured to predict that it would cost a million sterling.
We were contradicted at the time, but we adhere to our
estimate. If that amount is not exceeded, large as it
is, there seems no reason to doubt that it will, with
good management, prove a fairly remunerative specu-
lation. The demand for exhibiting space alone
already insures a sctisfactory return for the money,
and our best manufacturers and tradesmen feel that they
cannot afford to be unrepresented in a building where
all that is wonderful and excellent in nature or in art
will be collected into one focus. As the whole under-
taking assumes its final shape and dimensions it is clear
that there will be no choice left, and that people must
go there ; the palace itself, the terraces, the exquisitely
diversified grounds, the fountwino, and bhe noulpiur. ,•
objects that cannot lose their hold upon the imagination
until they are outdone. They appeal to all alike, and
the scale upon which they have been formed, while it for-
bids any idea of rivalry, leaves nothing further in the
way of grandeur or effectiveness to be desired. Sir J.
Paxton has, in this respect, shown an instinctive appre-
ciation of popular taste, which derives its highest and
most unqualified gratification from the largest and sim-
plest manifestations of splendour. Of the millions who
now-a-days are enabled to indulge in the pleasures of
sightseeing a very small proportion indeed examine what
attracts them in an inquisitive and studious spirit ; yet,
to such the Crystal Palace will open up an immense
field for observation. Even Professor Owen warms
into enthusiasm when he describes how much the palm-
ontologist will learn there. Before the sculptor and
architect will be displayed complete illustrations of
every style and school in their respective professions
from the remotest times and countries. This centre of
the high tides of commerce through the world has
already, within a year and a half, furnished the largest
ethnological collection that has ever been got together,
and in that department alone how much new informa-
tion will oe conveyed of the varieties of our species, and
of the habits which give to each its distinctive character
and interest ! In natural history and geology, also,
the amount of instruction popularly and attractively
imparted will be enormous ; nor must it be forgotten
that by the easiest and simplest process of education—
that acquires through the eye—the multitude will be
able to bring down to the latest date a knowledge of
those brilliant discoveries which have rewarded in so
many different branches the patient researches of modern
science.
Such are some of 'the general results, which the pros-
pectus of this undertaking, indeed, warranted us to look
for, but which the present advanced state of the prepa-
rations at length hold out a near and certain prospect of
being amply fulfilled. To satisfy the reader of this we
need only refer to the stage of progress at !which the
works have arrived ; and first, of the building. The
west end is still the most advanced, being glazed and
almost entirely painted up to the centre transept ; the
galleries and staircases are finished ; the flooring for the
most part laid, the foundations of some of the fountains
prepared, and even a few of the plants ready to take
their appointed places in their new home. The style
of internal decoration decided on by Mr. Owen Jones is
now clearly and most favourably displayed, and it is
impossible to award too much praise to the effect of the
colours, which, spreading along the vaulted roof of the
nave, seem to lift it still higher than its real distance from
the eye, and in crease its grandeur. A striking appearance is
presonted by the spiral staiscaseswhich communicates with
the uppengalleries at the structure at each terminal point,
and which, climbing up lightly round tall central co-
lumns, look at a distance like so many gigantic snakes
worming their way upwards. The basement, set apart
for machinery in motion, and for other purposes, dis-
plays an immense amount of heavy work accomplished.
The Pompeian Court is rapidly approaching comple-
tion ; and the decorations of many of the rooms have
been finished These already possess extreme interest,
and reflect the highest credit upon Signor Abotf, the
Neapolitan artist, to whom the execution of them
has been entrusted. It is not without a sense of hu-
miliation that we are here enabled to see illustrated
with what admirable taste the ancients adorned the
interior of their dweilings, and our house painters
will be brought into sad disrepute by the compari-
sons which this court unavoidably suggests. A promi-
nent position on the north side of the west transept
has been assigned to the bronze cast of the eques-
trian statue of King Charles at Charing-cross, Mount-
ing to the upper gallery at this end of the building,
the visitor has an overwhelming impression produced
upon him by its dimensions as seen from that point.
Though shorter than the old palace, the additional
height of the nave, and the manner in which the mono-
tonous succession of columns is broken down by projec-
tions, make it appear much longer. A curious effect is
also secured at this great elevation by the 8-foot wide
gallery, which extends on either side, and which, car-
ried through circular connecting pieces in the structure,
assumes the appearance of an immense tubular chamber
suspended aloft and stretched out as far as the eye can
reach. The central transept has not recovered from the
effects of the late accident, but the two huge ribs which
span its width on the north side give some faint idea
of what it will be when completed. An arched space,
120 feet across, 208 feet high, and 380 feet long, insures
for this part of the building an architectural grandeur
of which mere description can convey no adequate
idea. The eastern half of the palace, though less
advanced than the western, is by no means in a
backward state. Here are the workshops of Owen,
Jones, and Dighy Wyatt, and the courts which they
are busily preparing for the illustration of the
great schools of sculpture and architecture, ancient
and modern. These are all necessarily inclosed against
the weather, and other large portions of the spaces not so
occupied have been roofed in. There is, however, a good
deal of glazing still to be done here, especially at the end,
and much to be effected also in the completion of galleries,
floors, staircases, and painting. The courts under Owen
Jones's charge are progressing rapidly, those for Nineveh
and Egypt being well avanced, and many of the most in-
teresting objects in their places. He has not yet
gathered into them all their properties, and it is only
in a general way that their future arrangements are
indicated ; but the sloping walls, supported by stolid