Crystal Palace Park
Crystal Palace Park
We have worked on successive projects at Crystal Palace Park for over thirty years.
Our most recent work as engineers and conservation advisers has been part of a multidisciplinary design team led by HTA Design for a new £17.5m scheme to upgrade the park.
The plans for the park will deliver upgrades to two key sites within the historic park: the Italian Terraces and the Lower Paxton Axis, Penge Gate and Tidal Lakes. The plans include a new information centre, a dinosaur-themed play area, a feature entrance at Penge Gate and a new maintenance building. Accessibility will also be improved.
Due to complete in 2032, this is the first phase of a larger regeneration of the park being undertaken by the London Borough of Bromley. The first phase - granted planning approval in 2024 - includes the restoration of the Grade-I listed Geological Court, including its iconic Dinosaur sculptures and an enhanced landscape setting; a new Dinosaur and geologically themed play area; the restoration of the Grade-II Italian Terraces; a new Information Centre and maintenance facility; a new feature entrance at Penge Gate; and improved lighting, wayfinding, and accessibility around the Tidal Lakes and Italian Terraces.
This recent work builds on our earlier experience working on the Park in the late 1990s, when we initially produced a Conservation strategy and report on the upper and lower terraces and associated steps. We subsequently won a competition in collaboration with landscape architects Gustafson Porter + Bowman and John Lyall Architects to revitalise the existing park with a series of water features, rolling soft landscape, greenhouses and gardens working in conjunction with the original 19th Century Paxton landscape. We carried out a detailed appraisal of the two lines of terrace which originally fronted the Palace building - which remain the most prominent features in the Park - focusing on the condition of the masonry retaining walls and steps. This appraisal formed the basis for a strategy to repair and maintain the terraces.
Although funding for the full competition masterplan could not be secured, some limited funding was obtained from the HLF and we administered a contract to repair and restore the dinosaurs, the geological illustrations and parts of the English Landscape. These works included the construction of the park maintenance building and a number of buildings adjacent to the Park’s farm.
As part of later work, we also carried out a study to explore alternative proposals for the area between the terraces and the Grade II* listed National Sports Centre as well as the Grade II* listed Crystal Palace Subway access to the park from the former High Level Station.
Client: London Borough of Bromley
Architects: Various
Images: Courtesy of HTA Design