Architecture

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Crystal Palace Subway

A fan-vaulted brick undercroft built for first-class passengers walking to a palace that burned down.

OdditiesVictorian & Edwardian

Photo by Peter Cooper, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The high-level station opened on 1 August 1865 to carry visitors to the Crystal Palace, and Edward Middleton Barry gave it a subway to take them under the Parade and into the grounds without meeting the road. It is the only part still standing: a vaulted chamber of red and cream brick, the ribs fanning out from octagonal columns, closer to a Byzantine crypt than to anything a railway would build today. The palace burned in 1936 and the station closed in 1954, leaving an underpass to nowhere under a car park. Volunteers cleared it and it is protected at the second-highest grade; it opens for tours and events a few times a year.

Where
Crystal Palace Parade, SE19 1LG
Nearest station
Gipsy Hill · 7 min walk

Opens for tours and events on set days; check the trust's own calendar.

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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