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Crystal Palace dinosaurs are preserved in stone
By Rashid Razaq and Mira Bar-Hillel, Evening Standard 07.08.07
Natural wonder: one of the sculptures in Crystal Palace that are to be listed
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Victorian dinosaur sculptures in a London park have joined Buckingham Palace as a Grade I-listed monument.
The sculptures - built of brick and artificial stone on a framework of iron - were built in Crystal Palace park in south London in the 1850s after being moved from the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park.
The dinosaurs had been given a Grade II listing in 1973.
The upgrade now puts the sculptures in the same preservation category that Buckingham Palace and the Royal Albert Hall enjoy.
"They're believed to be unique and are clearly of exceptional historic interest in a national and probably international context," Culture Minister Margaret Hodge said.
According to English Heritage the sculptures are the "first attempt to accurately reconstruct the three dinosaur species known to the scientific world in the 1850s".
Designed and sculpted by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, they were the first models of their kind.
They caused a sensation when they were unveiled and thousands flocked to see the 15 life-size models.
Now the sculptures are considered out of date and inaccurate but palaeontologists believe they were groundbreaking for their time.
Dr Angela Milner, from the National History Museum, said: "Considering how much material they had to go on, it was a remarkable first effort." Britain has 9,137 Grade I listed monuments, with the preservation order designed to ensure any alterations respect the character and interest of the sculptures.
It comes as a London synagogue was given the same preservation status. The New West End Synagogue in St Petersburgh Place, Bayswater, has had its listing upgraded to Grade I. Built in 1877 and designed by George Audsley, it is described by Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage, as "the high watermark of Anglo-Jewish architecture".
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Reader views (1)
It's great to see that the dinosaurs, which certainly are an international as well as local attraction, have been given the status they deserve - Grade I listing. Their recent renovation has proved most successful. Let's hope the movement to resurrect the rest of the park, through the local dialogue process, will soon start to provide, via the excellent, new Master Plan for the park, a proper future 'Grade I' backdrop for the beasts.
- Ray Sacks, London, UK
