The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs of South London

The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs are a series of sculptures of dinosaurs and other extinct animals in Crystal Palace Park, South London. Commissioned in 1852 to accompany the Crystal Palace Exhibition building after its relocation from the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, the models were unveiled in 1854 as the first dinosaur sculptures in the world. Designed by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins under the scientific direction of Sir Richard Owen, the sculptures represent the scientific knowledge of the mid-19th century.

Hawkins set up a workshop on site and built the models as full-size sculptures in clay, from which a mould was taken allowing cement sections to be cast. The larger sculptures are hollow with a brickwork interior. These models were originally called the Geological Court and were part of a set of exhibits that reconstructed historic art from the Renaissance, Assyrian, and Egyptian periods. They were classed as Grade II listed buildings from 1973 and upgraded to Grade I listed in 2007.

The display underwent a total renovation in 2001. The destroyed limestone cliff was replaced using 130 large blocks of Derbyshire limestone, and fibreglass replacements were created for missing sculptures. While many were based on fragmentary evidence, the models remain a significant part of the park's history. Today, fifteen genera of extinct animals, not all dinosaurs, are represented in the park.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons