Crystal Palace Park houses 30 palaeontological statues and 5 geological displays in the vicinity of a tidal lake. Only 4 statues represent dinosaurs in ‘the strict, technical zoological sense of the word’, but each brims with charm. Our archaeological heritage is celebrated in these works, with statues of Plesiosaurs and Ichthyosaurs that remember the fossils discovered by Mary Anning in Lyme Regis, Dorset. Other figures, such as Pterodactyls, crocodilians and mammals, were brought back to Britain by Charles Darwin aboard the HMS Beagle. One such mammal construction includes the South American Megatherium or giant ground sloth, sculpted as a beast unlike anything within our modern ecology.

After the Great Exhibition of 1851, The Crystal Palace moved from its original location in Hyde Park to an area of South London known as Penge Place within Sydenham Hill, an affluent suburb of large homes and notable people. Crystal Palace came to be known as such as a form of remembrance for the palatial structure. After a successful relocation from Hyde Park, Queen Victoria was on hand to oversee an opening ceremony attended by over 40,000 guests. Amongst the celebrated events and performances were troubling exhibits such as the African Exhibition of 1895. Alongside African animals, birds and reptiles were 80 Somalian people, held against their will as performers, ‘mimicking warfare’ where tribes would attack each other before European settlers arrived to end the conflict. These people were kept within a cattle enclosure and made to wear exotic animal skins. They engaged in their national sports and dances before being required to set up and dismantle their temporary accommodation for themselves. Their participation in the exhibition was the responsibility of Carl Hagenback and Josef Menges; the duo sought to alter the fortunes of the Crystal Palace as it had become less popular amongst visitors. The Festival of Empire, which arrived in 1911, depicted colonies and colonised people in similar tropes, deepening the divides between ethnic groups and strengthening British national identity.
The famous glass structure sat within the park for over 80 years, undisturbed yet well-used, before being destroyed by a fire in November 1936. Now, the overgrown foundations of the Crystal Palace lay empty. Grand sphinx sculptures sit atop broad stone steps, with the prior restored to their Victorian splendour, painted terracotta red. Weeds permeate the cracks in the heavy stone stairs and metal fencing protects the Italian arch terrace from further damage. It was here where the innovative glass structure once boldly stood.
Crystal Palace Park survives to this day, built at significant cost and by the finest landscape gardeners, sculptors and engineers in mid-19th century Britain. The splendour created by these masters of their craft is still evident in the park's tidal lake, an area that has retained its wonder for those walking its perimeter. Reflected on the water's surface and protruding above the exotic hedgerows, a collection of large, three-dimensional beasts lay as an outdoor museum. Despite their age, the condition of the relics is remarkable. Maintained by a community of volunteers, the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs have worked tirelessly to preserve the stone beasts from extinction. The island arboretum upon which they stand is walled by a knee-high fence, where visitors can witness the dinosaurs from several vantage points. Despite the constant efforts of the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, the stone and plaster sculptures have been declared ‘At Risk’ by Historic England, meaning they have protected status.
The protected statues were designed by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, a natural history illustrator and sculptor, with an approach to work that pursued technical accuracy and animate expression. The dinosaurs were constructed between 1853 and 1855, and housed in a landscape garden designed by Joseph Paxton. It is known that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were fascinated by the beasts and visited them on several occasions. The dinosaurs were a popular spectacle in mid-19th century Britain and an often recounted story is of the ‘Dinner in the Iguanodon’ that took place on New Year's Eve in 1853.
“Mr Waterhouse Hawkins requests the honour of — at dinner in the mould of the Iguanodon at the Crystal Palace on Saturday evening December the 31st at five o’clock 1853 An answer will oblige.”
From an invite sent by Benjamin Waterhous Hawkins to guests, inviting them to dine in the belly of the Crystal Palace Iguanodon.


Immortalised in a sketch within the Illustrated London News of January 1854, Waterhouse Hawkins invited notable palaeontologists of the era to celebrate the unveiling of the dinosaurs. His prowess as an illustrator was shown on the invitations to the dinner. The cover was elaborately detailed with exaggerated manifestations of the dinosaur statues he had conjured for the park. The group dined within the hollow bowels of an Iguanodon that still stands today. Of the men present, some had provided scientific counsel to Waterhouse Hawkins, informing his designs were Professors Richard Owen and Edward Forbes. The prior sat at the head of the table, positioned where the brain would have been located. Also in attendance was the Managing Director of the Crystal Palace, Mr Francis Fuller, who alongside Joseph Prestwich, an early pupil and friend of Waterhouse Hawkins, made the evening a memorable one.
A platform was erected around the creature to give waiters and other servers access to those dining. They served the guests an eight-course dinner that included several types of meat, a bounty of desserts and a plethora of accompanying wines. Articles over the following days suggested that the event became spirited, lasting beyond midnight.
“The world of scientific gastronomy will learn with interest that Professors Owen and Forbes, with a party of other gentlemen, numbering altogether 21, had an exceedingly good dinner, the other day, in the interior of the Iguanodon modelled at the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. We congratulate the company on the era in which they live; for it had been an early geological period, they might perhaps have occupied the Iguanodon’s inside without having any dinner there.”
Punch reported, “Fun in a Fossil” (1854 volume 26 page 24).
As the dinner took place nearly 170 years ago, specific questions remain regarding how the evening unfolded. The weight of the Iguanodon, a large statue that weighs many tons, was likely cast in the place where it still stands today. This suggests that the dinner took place on the site; a stage constructed around the beast in the middle of winter. Perhaps more likely, further illustrations seem to imply that the iguanodon was located in Waterhouse Hawkins's working shed within the park, used during the construction of his famous statues. The guests would have therefore been privy to a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the sculptor's monstrous creations, before the public.
Waterhouse Hawkins and his palaeontologist collaborators can be forgiven for the wild inaccuracies of their creations compared to modern archaeological interpretations of dinosaurs. Just 20 years after his statues were erected, new skeletons were found that showed that the horns atop the snouts of the Crystal Palace Iguanodons were in fact bones. These bones were thought to be thumb spikes; a means of defence against predators. A further decade later, the understanding of Iguanodon anatomy improved further. Discoveries in Belgium in 1878 revealed a slender animal, with ‘powerful hindlimbs…shorter forelimbs with large thumb spikes…a beaked and horse-like head and a long, powerful tail’.
A few of the creatures within the park, such as the Megalosaurus, have stood up to the rigours of modern archaeological inspection. The Crystal Palace model has many features that were confirmed by later excavations, though William Buckland’s work aided Waterhouse Hawkins's work on the Megalosaurus in describing it in 1824. Though there were inaccuracies in this model, caused partly by excavations that discovered bones that did not belong to the dinosaur, some details have stood the test of time. The skin of the animal, rather than the scales laden across the Iguanodon, has ‘deep fissures and wrinkles that recall elephant skin’. This is said to be ‘surprisingly forward thinking’. Its razor-sharp teeth, large stature and long tail remain in modern reconstructions of a beast that once roamed across the English Weald 165 million years ago.

Further accurate reconstructions include 3 different species of Plesiosaurus. As with all the statues within the collection, some proportions are exaggerated, but the main characteristics of these fish-eating, water-dwelling monsters are thought to be accurate. The strangeness of the Plesiosaur skeleton, first discovered in full by Mary Anning, led some experts to believe it was fake. Their long, slim necks are detailed by Waterhouse Hawkins in his multiple representations of the species. Swimming in the seas of southern England 200 million years ago, these ferocious creatures would have been reduced to a crawl in the shallow waters of the lake in Crystal Palace Park.
With the credibility of the dinosaurs as scientific exhibits eroded, they are now celebrated as works of Victorian art. With dynamic bodies and characterful expressions, the Iguanodons are the most celebrated statues in the entire display. However, each of the Jurassic statues holds a fond place in the heart of the local community.
The aforementioned Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs are passionate about ‘telling the story of the dinosaurs and ensuring their legacy for the future’. Their conservation of the sculptures, as well as the accompanying geological displays, is the only means of ensuring their longevity in the face of weathering. With some of the statues being permanently part-submerged, their condition must be monitored closely. A recent visit to the park was evidence of the group's commitment to preservation. Volunteers in waterproof clothing knelt in the shallow lake, tending to the cracked facade of one dinosaur. The designation of the site as ‘vulnerable and declining’ in 2016 was a call to action for the charity.
The popularity of the dinosaurs with the local community led to a significant allocation of a £2.4 million budget afforded to projects in Crystal Palace Park. Restoring the dinosaurs to their original condition, and updating the signs with modern science and interpretation, ensures that the site will continue to be utilised by local people. The prehistoric presence will continue to inspire many children to explore the worlds of art and science.