Crystal Palace was an iron and glass building designed by Joseph Paxton for the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851. The palace was first erected in Hyde Park. It was prefabricated from iron girders and arches. The building was 1,851 feet (564 meters) long, to commemorate the year of the exhibition. In 1852, it was dismantled and rebuilt at Sydenham, in south London. The rebuilt structure, called Sydenham Palace, had additional end-towers by the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The building burned down in 1936. The site in south London became known as Crystal Palace. Today, the Crystal Palace grounds have a sports center.
