A day at The Great Exhibition

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• published: 16 Nov 2010
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Pathé archive voice over: To few people in a lifetime comes the chance of seeing such a gigantic blaze as the funeral pyre of the Crystal Palace, one of the few remaining links with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Narrator: In 1936 a fire destroyed the spectacular building known as the Crystal Palace - the same building that 85 years earlier had housed the famous ' Great Exhibition' , one of the most important events of the Victorian era. On 1 May 1851 the Great Exhibition was opened by Queen Victoria. Her husband - Prince Albert - led the development of the Exhibition, which was the first of its kind. It was a bit like a giant museum, full of interesting objects from around the world. The Great Exhibition was held in London' s Hyde Park in a building that soon became known as the Crystal Palace because of the amount of glass used to build it - and it attracted people from all over the country. Historical sources like diaries, letters, newspaper articles and pictures tell us about the Great Exhibition. They give us a good idea of what a 'day out' at the Exhibition was like. Mary Smith, a school-teacher from Oxfordshire, wrote about her visit to the Great Exhibition. Mary Smith: The time came that we started off on a week' s excursion to London, to see this latest wonder of the world. We travelled, as everyone did, by an 'excursion train' , the first I had experience of, and all our party were very weary of it. Narrator: Visitors even came from overseas, from as far away as America, China, Trinidad, Australia, India and Ceylon. Less well-off people like Mary Smith went on cheap ticket days, which were very popular. Mary Smith: Country folks as we were, we naturally made the Exhibition our first object, setting off for Hyde Park directly after breakfast to be there when the doors opened. We went with the common people on the shilling day. Narrator: It seemed as though everyone was there. If you were really lucky, you might even bump into the Queen herself on one of her many visits. Queen Victoria: After breakfast we left for the Exhibition. It looked so beautiful this wonderful creation of my beloved Albert's. Narrator: Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice In Wonderland, found the Great Exhibition very exciting. He wrote that: Lewis Carroll: The impression when you get inside is of bewilderment. It looks like a sort of fairyland. Far as you can look in any direction, you see nothing but pillars hung about with shawls, carpets, canopies … Walter Bagehot (coughing and interrupting): The only accurate idea I can give you of the Exhibition is that it is a great fair under a cucumber frame. Narrator: Walter Bagehot, a journalist and banker, recorded his experience of the Great Exhibition in a letter that he wrote to his mother. Walter Bagehot: The form of the building is that of a cross, the long stroke being called the nave, and the short stroke the transept. In the exact centre is a stunning fountain made of glass. Narrator: The Crystal Palace covered an area equivalent to 15 football pitches. It was over 30 metres high and several trees that stood on the site were not sawn down, but were covered by the huge building rather like pot plants in a giant conservatory. An average of 42,000 visitors from all classes of society came to the Exhibition each day. Reporter: There were honest fellows in corduroys, agricultural labourers in smock frocks, and rural folk in their full dress of velveteen, with their sweethearts in bright-coloured shawls of scarlet and green. It was amusing to observe the amazement of these good folks as they entered, and the bewildered look of their upturned wondering eyes gazing up at the roof of the building in stunned and staggered astonishment. Narrator: There were over 100,000 objects on display. Exhibits from Britain and its colonies filled one half of the building, and the rest of the world, the other half. The famous author, Charlotte Brontë, could not believe her eyes. Charlotte Brontë: Whatever human industry has created, you find there! Railway engines and boilers, mill machinery, splendid carriages of all kinds, glass-covered stands loaded with the most gorgeous work of gold and silver smiths, carefully guarded caskets full of real diamonds and pearls worth thousands of pounds. Narrator: In the British section, there were manufactured goods such as silk and cotton, cutlery, hand tools and surgical instruments and much more. Official Guides were employed to show the more well-off visitors around. Guide: Among the more unusual items to be found at the Exhibition are the following: a piano that four people can play at once, furniture made from papier mâché, a bed that turns into a life-raft, a penknife with eighty blades, a dressing table that doubles up as a fire escape… Narrator: In the British Machinery Section, there were cranes, lighthouse lamps and huge presses. Mary Smith was intrigued. Mary Smith: We came upon a world of wonders of mechanical