Which London building was built to house the Great Exhibition of 1851?

The Crystal Palace was the London building built to house the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Designed by gardener and engineer Joseph Paxton, the Crystal Palace was a vast prefabricated structure of cast iron and plate glass. It was erected in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, which opened on 1 May 1851. Its transparent walls and enormous scale made the building itself one of the exhibition’s most celebrated wonders.

The exhibition displayed machinery, manufactured goods, raw materials and works of art from Britain and countries around the world. After the event closed, the building was dismantled and reconstructed in an enlarged form at Sydenham Hill in south London. The surrounding district later took the name Crystal Palace.

It is easy to confuse the building with the exhibition: “Great Exhibition” names the event, while “Crystal Palace” names its principal venue. The building stood at Sydenham until a catastrophic fire destroyed it on 30 November 1936. The Royal Albert Hall was built later and was not the venue for the 1851 exhibition.