London’s farewell to the Crystal Palace – archive, 1 December 1936

1 December 1936: Crowds flock to south London to watch flames devour the vast glasshouse, which had stood on Sydenham Hill for 82 years

Fleet Street, Monday night
There was no mistaking the earnestness of London's farewell to the Crystal Palace to-night. The news was given out in one of the earlier news bulletins on the wireless, but long before that the flickering orange glow in the sky, which could be seen from Islington, Willesden, and even farther north and as far south as Haywards Heath, had begun to draw the crowds in hundreds of thousands, by bus and car and train.

By nine o'clock - three-quarters of an hour after the fire had started - it was almost impossible to get within half a mile of the Palace. Fire engines had been called out from all over London. Cars and taxis stood jammed in the sidestreets round about the Palace. It was like the gathering of the crowd for one of the Palace's old Cup finals.