SYDENHAM, a hamlet and chapelry in the parish of Lewisham, Kent, 4 miles from Deptford, and 8 miles S.S.E. and stat. from London, lies partly in a deep and pleasant valley, and partly on a considerable hill, environed by much agreeable scenery, which, spite of railroads, still retains somewhat of its rural character. Houses, however, are rapidly springing up on every side, and Sydenham will soon form a portion of suburban London. There are here (1.) a station on the London and South Coast Railway, bringing the metropolis within twenty minutes' ride; and (2.) at Lower Sydenham, a station on the London and Southborough Road branch of the Mid Kent Line.
The population of Sydenham, in 1841, was 2915; in 1851 it had increased to 4501. In the former year there were 516 inhabited houses, 40 uninhabited, and 20 buildings; in the latter, the inhabited houses numbered 801; the uninhabited, 47; houses building, 28. In 1640 a mineral-spring, afterwards known as the Sydenham Wells, was discovered in this vicinity. Its properties were mildly cathartic, and resembled those of the Epsom waters; but it has long ceased to be recommended by the faculty, or made use of by invalids. The poet Campbell was a resident at Sydenham from 1804 to 1821. His house was situated on Peak Hill, looking towards Forest Hill. He left Sydenham for lodgings at 62 Margaret Street, Cavendish Square, on assuming the editorship of the New Monthly Magazine. The living of Sydenham is a perpetual curacy in the patronage of the Earl of Dartmouth, valued at £248 yearly. The church, a neat and graceful edifice, is dedicated to St Bartholomew.
The Crystal Palace is situated within the Sydenham district, Crystal and a branch from the London and Brighton Railway diverges at Palace.
Sydenham, the Sydenham station to a terminus within the palace grounds. Its site forms a portion of an estate of 290 acres, known as Penge Place (purchased by the Crystal Palace Company in 1852), and from its great elevation commands a fine view of the cloudy roofs of the great metropolis, and extensive prospects in Kent and Surrey. The building itself is a great improvement upon the structure of glass and iron which enshrined, in 1851, the industrial exhibition of all nations in Hyde Park, and must be regarded as a satisfactory monument of the engineering skill and mechanical enterprise of the England of the nineteenth century. The Hyde Park building was marked by too great a monotony, and its elevation was disproportionate to its length; but in the Sydenham palace an agreeable effect is produced by the three transepts, by the lofty arch of the centre, and the recesses in the garden front. The dimensions are given by the authorities as—length, 1608 feet; greatest width, 384 feet; general width, 312 feet; area, including wings, 603,072 feet; height of nave, from ground floor, 110 feet 3 inches; height of central transept from ground floor, 174 feet 3 inches; height of central transept from basement, 197 feet 10 inches; area occupied by the galleries, 231,568 feet. The girders which support the galleries and roof work are of cast-iron, and 24 feet long. The first gallery is reached by a flight of stairs, 23 feet high; the upper gallery, by spiral staircases, about 40 feet in height. If all the columns made use of in this superb structure were laid out in a straight line, they would extend 16½ miles. The iron employed amounts to 9641 tons, 17 cwt., and 28 lb.; the superficial quantity of glass used is 25 acres, and weighs 500 tons. The colonnade leading from the palace to the railway station is 720 feet long, 17 feet wide, and 18 feet high, consuming, so to speak, 60 tons of iron, and 30,000 superficial feet of glass.
The palace is heated by hot water, on a system designed by its principal architect, Sir Joseph Paxton, who had formerly submitted it to the test of experience at Chatsworth. On this point it will be sufficient to state, that the hot water pipes employed, if placed in a straight line, would reach 60 miles; and that the boiler-houses erected in the basement story contain 22 boilers, each holding 11,000 gallons of water.
The interior of the palace presents many objects of attraction, blending together, perhaps too confusedly, the beauties of art and the wonders of mechanical industry. How far the palace may advantageously be made use of as a grand educational agency, working at a definite object, it is not now our province to inquire; but in spite of many errors of judgment, and, as it seems to us, of taste, there can be no doubt that it exercises a considerable and a beneficial influence upon the minds of its visitors, and that its general tendency is to enlarge their comprehension, refine their ideas, and quicken their perceptions. The most attractive features are, probably, the Courts; those portions of the building which are devoted to the illustration of architecture, domestic and ecclesiastical, in its various stages of progress. In these the curious visitor may observe a reproduction of the houses of the Greeks, Romans, and Pompeians; and a visible embodiment of the distinctive features of the Byzantine art; English, German, and French medievalism; the Renaissance style, the Elizabethan, and the Italian. The Alhambra, the glories of old Thebes and Memphis, and the wonders of Nineveh are also illustrated—in miniature, it is true, but with considerable effect and commendable accuracy. The arrangement of these details were confided to such authorities as Messrs Digby Wyatt, Owen Penrose, Layard, Bonomi, J. B. Waring, and George Schaff, jun., names which may reasonably be accepted as a guarantee for historical fidelity and general excellence.
Sculpture. Not the least praiseworthy feature of the internal arrangement is the exhibition of fine sculptures from the antique, and copious illustrations of the genius of modern art. The master-pieces of the artists of the old classic world; of the greatest geniuses of France, Germany, and England, are here brought before the eye of the spectator in such juxtaposition that he may, if he will, contrast with ease their relative excellences, the elegance of Canova with the severe grandeur of Thorwaldsen, and the ideal beauty of Baily with the classicism of Gibson. From Paris and Munich, from Florence and Venice, from Rome and Milan, experienced emissaries have procured casts of world-famous statues, and accurate copies of notable frescoes, monuments, screens, ornamental arches, or richly-decorated doorways, which, if we accept the well-known axiom of Keats, that "a thing of beauty is a joy for ever," must amply repay the visitor to the Crystal Palace for any fatigue his perambulations of its magnificent corridors may entail.
The palace and its grounds occupy an area of about 200 acres, and it may be noted, says the official Handbook, that, in the formation of the gardens, the same uniformity of parts is adhered to as in the building itself; that is to say, the width of the walks, the width and length of the basins of the fountains, the length of the terraces, the breadth of the steps, are all multiples and submultiples of the one primary number of eight. Thus, an har-
monious combination is effected, which the spectator admires and acknowledges, though ignorant of its cause.
The length of the upper terrace is 1576 feet; its width, 48 feet. The central flight of steps, and the grand central walk, are each 98 feet wide. The lower terrace is 1654 feet in length, and 512 feet in width. The total length of the garden front of this terrace is 1896 feet; of the central walk already alluded to, 2660 feet. The gardens exemplify the more attractive features both of the Italian and English styles, and from their gradual slope are susceptible of infinite effects of light and shade, while commanding, from almost every point, the richest prospects imaginable of the surrounding country.
The water-works claim from us a word of passing notice. There are two series of fountains—the upper and the lower; the upper works consisting of nine basins, of which the central is of superior dimensions; the lower, of the iron water-temple, from which twelve cascades pour down a volume of water, extending a distance of 600 feet; and the two great fountains, into whose basins this volume rushes in a sort of cataract, 120 feet in breadth, and 30 feet in fall. The smaller fountains in the upper series fling their columns of spray to a height of 90 feet, the central fountain attains an altitude of 150 feet; the iron water-temple are 60 feet in height. The basins of the great fountains, the largest in the world, are 704 feet long, with a diameter of 418 feet. A great central column mounts in each to the astonishing altitude of 230 feet, each column composed of 50 2-inch jets. The whole system of fountains provides for the action of 11,788 jets, making use of 120,000 gallons of water per minute. To Sir Joseph Paxton is due the credit of their construction.
Admission to the palace is gained by yearly tickets, at one guinea each; and day-tickets, one shilling each, on every day but Saturday, when their price is two shillings and sixpence.
[Lysons' Encyclopaedia of London; Hasted's Kent; Cyrus Redding's Life of Campbell; Howitt's Home and Haunts of English Poets; Official Handbooks; and Annual Reports of the Crystal Palace Company.] (W. H. D. A.)