Disaster Strikes the Palace

30 November 1936

The Crystal Palace Company was put into liquidation. Before the First World War a charitable trust was formed and the trustees hired Henry James Buckland (lately Manager of Harrogate Spa) as the Manager of the Crystal Palace. He was a firm but fair man who had a great love for the Crystal Palace - so much so that even named one of his daughters Chrystal. Because of the War he was not able to take up his duties until the Navy had moved out. When Henry took over it was evident that the deterioration suffered by the building up to 1913 had worsened further still during the First World War through being used as the Royal Naval Shore Station HMS Victory VI. Over 125 000 men serving in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), Royal Naval Division (RND) and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) were trained for war service.

Shortly after the War John Logie Baird opened workshops, a television studio and tube manufacturing plant in various parts of the Palace and grounds. Henry and his staff performed miracles on the building and Park, repairing, cleaning, improving and the Palace was even starting to show a slight profit. But on Monday 30 November 1936 something happened to change the now Sir Henry's life and that of the whole area for ever.

At about 7pm he and Chrystal left their house ('Rockhills') on the northern corner of Crystal Palace Parade, to walk their dog. He walked towards the Crystal Palace and noticed a red glow in the building. He ran inside to see two night watchmen attempting to extinguish a small fire in the office area in the centre transept. It soon became obvious that the situation was very serious. The first fire brigade call was received by Penge fire station at 7:59pm, the first fire engine arriving at 8:03pm. By the morning of Tuesday 1 December the building was no more. There had been 88 fire engines, 438 officers men from 4 fire brigades and 749 police officers on duty that historic night. The cause was never truly established and stories of arson abounded but because of the size of the building and the huge amounts of flammable material it contained, the true cause was probably just a terrible accident. Shortly after the fire there was held a prebooked engagement that opened a new chapter in the life of Crystal Palace - work started on constructing a tarmac motor racing track. Following the fire, work started on removing the ironwork and by 1937 most of it had been removed by W. Ward and Co. Ltd, scrap merchants.

During the Second World War the park was once again closed to the public, this time because of various classified work by Baird and his company in the south tower and in the Rotunda building. The north tower was used for war work by government departments and was requisitioned for use by the Radio Counter Measures Committee as a reserved transmitting tower, but in fact was never used. The Tower was, however, used for a short while by the Ministry of Projectile Development for testing dummy bombs. During the winter of 1940 to 41 the south tower was dismantled because of it proximity to the road, and on the 16 April 1941 the north tower was demolished by explosives. Throughout the War parts of the grounds were used for the storage of timber salvage and from 1942 to 1944 the Italian Terrace and the area bordering Crystal Palace Parade were used for a government vehicle reclamation and disposal scheme.

Upon Sir Henry's return to the Park after the War he commented to the press that "The general devastation which we have suffered would lead one to suppose that our acres had been chosen as the field for the most realistic battle of the war". So even after the demise of the building the deterioration had continued. The final destructive force to hit the Crystal Palace struck at 10:40pm on Tuesday 24 October 1950 when the School of Art and the remains of the south wing were destroyed by fire.