The open Colonnade of the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, Garden Front. This image is from Photographic Views of the Progress of the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, taken during the progress of the works, by desire of the directors, by Philip H. Delamotte. London, 1855.

After the closure of the 1851 Great Exhibition, the Crystal Palace which had housed it was dismantled and transferred to Sydenham in South London. Philip Henry Delamotte's photographic record of its reconstruction on the new site is an early example of the use of photography to create a detailed record of the progress of a civil engineering project. This elegant architectural vista is one of a hundred photographs by Delamotte recording the construction of the Crystal Palace and published as Photographic Views of the progress of the Crystal Palace, Sydenham (London, 1855). Opened by Queen Victoria in 1854, the building survived until 1936, when it was destroyed by fire.

Shelfmark: Tab.442.a.5, plate 34