Crystal Palace Foundation

Specialties

The history of the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park and the Crystal Palace and park at Sydenham from 1854 to the present day

History

Established in 1979.

Eric Price owned a gentlemens hairdressers at 84 Anerley Road, London, SE19 and displayed on the shop walls photographs of the Crystal Palace. Two of his regular customers — Alan Watson (later Mason-​Watson) and John Greatrex spoke at great length with Eric about the history of Crystal Palace and they decided to hold an exhibition on its history. The exhibition was held on the 3 March 1979 in the National Sports Centre (NSC) Conference Centre. They had 24 visitors paying 10 pence each.

Spurred on by this ‘success’ the trio decided to hold a bigger and better exhibition later in the year. Advertisements were placed in various local society magazines inviting others to jon the fledgling group. The new joiners were: E. R. Rogers MBE, Geoffrey Chipping, Jan Greatrex, Melvyn Harrison, George West, and an American student Jeff Yentz. The group would be known as the Crystal Palace Exhibition Committee.

The exhibition took place in the now demolished Anmac building in the NSC on 28 May 1979 an

Meet the Manager

Melvyn H.

Manager

Chairman of the Crystal Palace Foundation — a UK Registered Charity.