The Crystal Palace: a Story of Decaying Magic

An illustrated talk by local historian Brian Green about the early years of the Crystal Palace - its founders, its experts, its builders and its rise and gradual fall. This year is the 90th year since its destruction by a fire in 1936. It is the story of an audacious coup by a group of ambitious entrepreneurs keen to capitalise on the immense success of the 1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde Park.

Its destruction left such a powerful nostalgia for this last relic of Victorianism that the public will has been instrumental in seeking the magnificent restoration of its Italian Terraces, park and life-sized dinosaurs.

Tickets £5 members, £8 non-members (Join the Dulwich Society here for just £10pa: dulwichsociety.com/membership)

Bar opens 7.30pm, talk starts 8pm