The Terraces in Crystal Palace Park

 

Sphinxes in Crystal Palace Park

My very brief investigation of Crystal Palace Park started at the north-west entrance, from which I made my way down to the Grade II Listed Italian Terraces, which are all that are left of the Crystal Palace – after it was burned down in 1936 and the water towers later demolished. 

 

A sphinx on a plinth made of grey granite from south--west England

Although I grew up in South London, I had only visited Crystal Palace Park a couple of times before – to see the dinosaurs – and the recently restored artificial stone sphinxes took me by surprise, with their brick red coloured paint. 

 

A headless statue

The sphinxes are set on grey granite plinths at each side of a wide set of steps, which are built of the same granite, but I didn’t stop to closely examine it here and was more interested in the limestone that is used of the balustrades to the upper terrace and a headless statue – one of three that remain from the original row of statues that represented the different parts of the empire.

 

The balustrade to the upper terrace

With the balustrade being fenced off, I couldn’t get close enough to examine the limestone with my hand lens but, from the cream colour that I could see beneath the grey patina, I could tell that it is a Jurassic oolitic limestone – probably from the area around Bath.

 

A view from the upper terrace

I continued along the upper terrace until I reached the central flight of steps, where I could not help but notice the rectangular feldspar phenocrysts in the granite, which are characteristic of those quarried from the Cornubian batholith in Cornwall and Devon. 

 

White feldspar phenocrysts in the granite paving

Although familiar with their general physical characteristics, the granites from this region very considerably in colour, mineralogy and texture and I couldn’t say where the stone came from. In some places, the white feldspar phenocrysts are greater than 50 mm in length, which I had not encountered before. 

 

Large feldspar phenocrysts

 

Finding a place where the ground beneath the upper terrace was not fenced off, I went to have a closer look at the oolitic limestone, which here does not have such a well developed grey patina as that seen on the balustrade. 

 

A view along the upper terrace

Looking closely, with out using a hand lens, the limestone appears quite coarse grained, with shelly beds and graded bedding being differentially weathered, which highlights the well developed cross-bedding in the limestone. 

 

A detail of limestone walling with shell beds and cross-bedding

In one place, a section of the stone facing to the brick built core of the terrace walling had failed and, while awaiting repair, had a barrier place around it but I managed to obtain a sample of limestone from a small pile of rubble. It contains no shell and, when looking through a hand lens, the ooliths are very clearly visible along with the calcite that cements them together. 

 

A sample of oolitic limestone

Continuing along the wide granite paved walkway to the lower terrace, I stopped again to look at further examples of very large feldspar phenocrysts, which did not have a very well defined rectangular shape.

 

A very large feldspar phenocryst

I didn’t explore the masonry to the arched lower terrace and just took a few general record photos of the principal features on either side of the central flight of steps and took another look at the gravel on the unpaved part of the lower terrace, which is mainly composed of black flint pebbles. 

 

A general view of the lower terrace

Leaving the terraces behind me, I then made my way down towards Main Centre Walk and unexpectedly came across the large Grade II Listed bust (1869) of Sir Joseph Paxton, which is signed by the sculptor W. F. Woodington and is described in the Historic England listing as being Carrara marble.

 

The bust of Sir Joseph Paxton