Crystal Palace Park

[DinoLord]

A few days before my trip to London, I just remembered that Crystal Palace Park was in the city. I made plans to go, but didn't realize how far it was from my hotel. After a longer than expected train ride, I was finally at Crystal Palace.

As soon as I stepped out of the train station, it was obvious that the dinosaurs were near.




It was a bit of a walk, but when I saw this I realized I was finally there.


The park itself was a beautiful view.


I went down and had a closer look at the statues.


Labyrinthodont:


Plesiosaurus:


Two Ichthyosaurus:


Two Teleosaurus:


Another look at the pond:


After looking at the reptiles, it was time to view some of the most famous dinosaur statues in the world.

The Iguanodon pair:


Megalosaurus:


Hylaeosaurus:


Pterodactyl pair:


After a bit more walking (and having my photography session interrupted by a rowdy child), there was a neat little pond, showing the layers of rock in the earth.


Then, it was to the mammals.

Anoplotherium trio:


Palaeotherium:


Megaloceras:


And the last statue I saw there was the Megatherium:


There are some statues that I unfortunately missed (Mosasaurus and Dicynodons), but overall it was a very nice experience. It was certainly an interesting experience to go see dinosaur statues from the 1850's. If anyone ever finds themselves in London, they should definitely make time to go visit Crystal Palace Park.

[Horridus]

Thanks for sharing the photos. It's somewhere that (to my shame) I still haven't been to!

[Himmapaan]

Ah, look at the Iguanodon among the daisies! Isn't that wonderful? I hadn't been there in years. I was actually planning to revisit this summer and take pictures, but you've now beaten me to it, blast. ;D

[mnemosaurus]

Also had a great time at the Crystal Palace Park

Funny enough I asked everybody at the DTF meeting, except Dinolord, what's the easiest way to get to the Park - not knowing that he was the only one who had most recently visited the park, haha ;D In the end it wasn't that hard to get there, but it took a little time.

I managed to make a picture of the Mosasaurus, will post it shortly. The Dicynodonts aren't among my pictures and I suspect that they were gone for restoration or something. They should have been to the right of the Labyrinthdons, and we deliberately also walked across that part of the little island to check if we hadn't missed anything, but they weren't to be found. It's also possible they were hiding in the vegetation...

The rest of the park was also nice and I liked to be at the site where once the impressive Crystal Palace stood. There's a little museum that's only opened in the weekends and had some pictures and paraphernalia on the Palace and the fire that ruined it - nothing on the dinosaurs though.

[roselaar]

Can't wait to see this magical place for myself in a few weeks time!

[Griffin]

Awesome. Sadly I didn't get a chance to visit when I was in London.

[gwangi]

Jun 21, 2011 17:31:24 GMT Horridus said:

Thanks for sharing the photos. It's somewhere that (to my shame) I still haven't been to!

How could you allow that?
If ever I make my way over there it will have to be a priority, I heard so much about it all my life and seeing these pictures really brings home how wonderful a place it is. Thanks for sharing, a lot of those I've never seen before. Especially love the Labyrinthodont.

[crackington]

I visited the Crystal Palace over 10 years ago and they have spent a bit of money renovating it since. For example, the Megalosaurus was in a much worse state of repair then than in Dinolord's photos. It seems that the value of Waterhouse Hawkins' statues have finally been appreciated and are being looked after properly now.

Maybe a trip to the park could be a future Forum UK meet-up?

[Himmapaan]

Jun 21, 2011 22:50:40 GMT crackington said:

I visited the Crystal Palace over 10 years ago and they have spent a bit of money renovating it since. For example, the Megalosaurus was in a much worse state of repair then than in Dinolord's photos. It seems that the value of Waterhouse Hawkins' statues have finally been appreciated and are being looked after properly now.

Maybe a trip to the park could be a future Forum UK meet-up?

What an excellent idea. It's perhaps not the most central of places in London for a meet-up, but it's certainly not a trial to get to; just takes a while.

But I very much intend going there again soon in any case.

[dinoguy2]

Great! It's weird, but since the Iguanodon statues were based on the Maidstone specimen, and since the name was transferred to the Belgian specimens, they're probably not actually depicting Iguanodon, but an as-yet unnamed species of igunodontian!

Similarly, the Megalosaurus is based mainly on specimens now referred to Becklespinax, hence the wird Concavenator-like hump.

[Libraraptor]

Fantastic! A visible. touchable piece of palaeoart history! Thanks for sharing!

[lio99]

aaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Scary
nice though ;D

[fooman666]

nice photo's DinoLord, if i ever visit london, i'll be sure to put this on my agenda

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Beautiful pics ! It's a place I hope to one day see myself...( and it's magical waters that can prevent one from becoming a Dinosaur...but who wouldn't want to..lol ) It still ticks me off that we could have had a similar park in New York if not for bloody politics !

[roselaar]

Went here today. Best park I'ved ever seen! Even without the dinosaurs it's a beautiful and peaceful place. I made a few pics myself (also of the models missing above), I can upload them when I'm back home if anybody's interested.

[Himmapaan]

Jul 3, 2011 20:13:56 GMT roselaar said:

...Even without the dinosaurs it's a beautiful and peaceful place....

Yes, it is. You may also like Holland Park in west central London, if you can make it. Very peaceful (perhaps not so much in high summer), with some areas of wilderness as well as a Japanese garden -- and many peafowl too. Kew Gardens in Richmond is another wonderful place to visit, though you do need to pay.

And yes, do post more pictures of Crystal Palace park too.

[roselaar]

So here's my pics, also showing the Dicynodons and Mosasaurus DinoLord missed (see the first two pictures):





































































And this is in the park's info center:

[Horridus]

Great photos! And look, there's even a magnificent example of a real dinosaur in some of them (although I'm sure koi carp owners would disagree). Who's the guy posing there?

[roselaar]

Jul 7, 2011 15:35:15 GMT Horridus said:

Great photos! And look, there's even a magnificent example of a real dinosaur in some of them (although I'm sure koi carp owners would disagree). Who's the guy posing there?

That would be me. ;D
Yeah, there were lots of birds just sitting on the models. It amkes for a nice and ironic picture, but these birds have a habit of defiling the memories of their ancestors by just nutsting on them.

[Seijun]

So much retro goodness!