1930 GARDEN GIANTS
Dinosaurs may be extinct, yet some of these magnificent creatures have roamed London for more than 150 years. Following the success of the Great Exhibition in 1851, the huge glass and iron building that housed it – nicknamed the Crystal Palace – was transferred from its home in Hyde Park to become part of a new pleasure garden in Penge Place Estate, Sydenham (later renamed Crystal Palace Park). To accompany the lakes, fountains and maze, dozens of long-dead dinos and creatures were sculpted by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins from bricks, tiles and cement. While it turned out they were far from biologically accurate, there they remain – and sometimes need a scrub down.
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