The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and plate-glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's 990,000 square feet (92,000 m²) of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in the Industrial Revolution. Designed by Joseph Paxton, the Great Exhibition building was 1,851 feet (564 m) long, with an interior height of 128 feet (39 m). Because of the recent invention of the cast plate glass method in 1848, which allowed for large sheets of cheap but strong glass, it was at the time the largest amount of glass ever seen in a building and astonished visitors with its clear walls and ceilings that did not require interior lights, thus a "Crystal Palace".

After the exhibition, the building was rebuilt in an enlarged form on Penge Common next to Sydenham Hill, an affluent South London suburb full of large villas. It stood there from 1854 until its destruction by fire in 1936. The name Crystal Palace (the satirical magazine Punch usually gets the credit for coining the phrase) was later used to denote this area of south London and the park that surrounds the site, home of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

Crystal Palace may refer to:

Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) was the 17th President of the United States (1865–1869). As Vice President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American Civil War. Johnson's reconstruction policies failed to promote the rights of the Freedmen, and he came under vigorous political attack from Republicans, ending in his impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives; he was acquitted by the U.S. Senate.

Johnson, born in poverty and of Scots-Irish descent, became a master tailor and was self-educated, married and had five children. He served as an alderman and as Mayor of Greeneville, Tennessee and then sat in both houses of the Tennessee legislature. He went on to spend five consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and two terms as Governor of Tennessee, all as a Democrat. His signature legislative endeavor in the state and federal arenas was passage of the Homestead Act.

Mark Abraham Bright (born 6 June 1962) is a former English footballer who is now a sports pundit and BBC London's sport presenter, as well as a coach at Crystal Palace.

He made the move from non-league Leek Town to Port Vale in 1981, where he remained for three years before he signed with Leicester City. In 1986 he transferred to Crystal Palace, where he would score 92 league goals over the next six years. Joining Sheffield Wednesday in 1992, he stayed with the club for five years before moving to Swiss side FC Sion in 1997, following a short loan stay at Millwall. He returned to England later in 1997 to play for Charlton Athletic, before he announced his retirement in 1999. A forward, he scored 167 goals in 463 league games throughout an eighteen year career in the Football League.

After a spell working in a factory and playing part-time at Leek Town, Bright moved to Port Vale in October 1981, a club that had previously released him from their youth team at the age of 16. He made his full debut in a 2–0 home win over Torquay United, two weeks after coming on as a substitute in a goalless home draw with York City on 1 May 1982. He had earned a regular first team spot by April 1984 and scored in five successive matches, which brought him to the attention of bigger clubs. Graham Barnett advised him to reject John Rudge's offer of a two year contract, and in June 1984 Bright was sold to Leicester City for £33,333. This fee was later doubled due to a top-up clause.

Sir Joseph Paxton (3 August 1803 – 8 June 1865) was an English gardener and architect, best known for designing The Crystal Palace.

Paxton was born in 1803, the seventh son of a farming family, at Milton Bryan, Bedfordshire. Some references, incorrectly, list his birth year as 1801. This is, as he admitted in later life, a result of misinformation he provided in his teens, which enabled him to enrol at Chiswick Gardens. He became a garden boy at the age of fifteen for Sir Gregory Osborne Page-Turner at Battlesden Park, near Woburn. After several moves, he obtained a position in 1823 at the Horticultural Society's Chiswick Gardens.

The Horticultural Society's gardens were close to the gardens of William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire at Chiswick House. The Duke frequently met the young gardener as he strolled in his gardens and became impressed with his skill and enthusiasm. The Duke offered the 20-year-old Paxton the position of Head Gardener at Chatsworth, which was considered one of the finest landscaped gardens of the time.