Author Archives: ActonBooks

Those first sight, scents and sound of the building were augmented by the music of a military band striking up a march tune in the transept of the building to the visitor’s right. When the sound of the brass band died away, it was replaced the distant rumble of a gigantic pipe organ – possibly the largest in the world – at the concert hall at the very farthest end of the building.
Above them, the newcomer could see other visitors gazing down on them from the gallery through a series of Romanesque round arches that punctuated the first floor. That gallery ran all around the building. Looking above the gallery, through the amber-coloured glass panes of the vaulted roof, you could see the sky, everywhere the sky. The amber tinted glass was not just aesthetically pleasing. It was there to ‘obviate the use of unsightly awnings or blinds’, according to The Builder.
Before the Palace was opened, the gallery had been safety tested. In fine Victorian tradition, troops had been marched around the balcony. As it had not maimed any hapless soldiers of the Queen, it was thus pronounced safe enough for the public.
The interior of the Palace had been designed by none other than the most renowned aesthetic movement designer, Christopher Dresser. The Builder approved of Dresser’s restrained use of colour in the general scheme for the Palace. His colours were modernist and avoided following dull municipal themes or railway colour schemes of monotonous blue, white and chocolate that graced Crystal Palace. Everywhere were rich yellows, green and reds surmounted by elaborate stencilling in Dresser’s keynote botanical style.
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