The
Crystal Palace
Foundation

by Bob Flanagan, Chairman, Friends of West Norwood Cemetery

We have identified 74 people with connections to the Crystal Palace either at Hyde Park, or at its final home in South London who are buried or otherwise commemorated at Norwood.

These include Sir William Cubitt and Douglas Jerrold, Thomas Cub­itt, a guarantor of the exhibition, William Wyon, designer of the Exhibition Medals, George Jenn­ings, who made a vital contribution to the success of the exhibition by providing the public toilets, Thomas Newman Farquhar, one of the businessmen who arranged the move to Sydenham, and William Frederick Woodington, sculptor of the monumental head of Paxton that remains in Crystal Palace Park.

In all no less than 51 of those featured in this new booklet are commemorated by entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Indeed, given the loss of the building itself, it can be argued that the cemetery has more tangible reminders of those who helped create the Palace than anywhere else.

The booklet, the product of many hours of research, runs to 96 pages and is printed in full colour throughout. There are brief biographies and where possible portraits of those featured, and 134 photographs. There is also a map that gives the location in the cemetery of all the graves discussed hence the booklet can form the basis of a self-guided tour.