What's Left From the 1851 Great Exhibition?

M@
By M@

Last Updated 22 January 2025

What's Left From the 1851 Great Exhibition?

This feature first appeared in March 2024 on Londonist: Time Machine, our much-praised history newsletter. To be the first to read new history features like this, sign up for free here.

Lots of things from 1851 with that year in front
Montage only partly based on actual events

It was the greatest cultural event that London has ever staged. Millions flocked to the 1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde Park to marvel at the world’s treasures — from priceless diamonds to intricate clockworks. The museums of South Kensington were built from its profits. And the sparkling Crystal Palace, which had housed the wonders of the age, was shifted to south London, where it gave its name to a whole neighbourhood.

The Great Exhibition’s legacy is immense. But there’s one aspect that isn’t so well documented: What happened to all the stuff inside? Where can you still see the Great Exhibits from the Great Exhibition?


The author and brother as children at Crystal Palace stadium
Image: probably by my mum

My first memory of London is a visit to Crystal Palace Park, aged seven. Here I am with my brother (I’m the less-cute one in the middle) standing before the park’s athletics track. I remember asking my dad about the park’s evocative name. Where was this “Crystal Palace”? It sounded enchanting… or “ace” as we said back then. Certainly, it had to be better than an athletics stadium.

Sadly, I never got to see the Crystal Palace. Very few people alive today have. It burned down in 1936 after 85 years’ service hosting events and exhibitions. Its finest season was also its first when, in 1851, it was purpose built to house the Great Exhibition. Not here, but in Hyde Park. It was an exhibition that defined Victorian London, and would go on to shape the city for many years to come.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I’d already passed beneath another reverberation of that long-ago festival. A day before the trip to Crystal Palace Park, I’d arrived in London through the welcoming bat-wing arches of King’s Cross station. There, high above me, stood a clock. This clock:

The clock tower of King's Cross
Recent photo of the King’s Cross clock, by Matt Brown. I’ve always thought there’s a solid perfection about this clock tower that fancier towers can’t match. Image: Matt Brown

I don’t recall noticing it. I’m pretty sure I’d have realised, even aged seven, that this wasn’t Big Ben. What I wouldn’t have known — and few people do — is that this clock was one of the prize displays at the Great Exhibition. It had stood as a centrepiece of the Crystal Palace. The sonorous tone of its main bell, weighing 1.5 tonnes, had been heard by millions as it rang the hours of that peerless cultural event. It was the most famous clock in the world.

This got me thinking… what else survives from the Great Exhibition of 1851? It was one of the defining moments of Victorian London, at which the world’s most splendid and innovative products went on show. How many of its Great Exhibits (as I’m calling them) were preserved?

But let’s just back up a little…

The Great Exhibition took place from May to October of 1851 under the stewardship of Prince Albert and Sir Henry Cole (whose ridiculously accomplished CV includes, among many other things, the popularisation of the Christmas card). Its full title was the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, and it was just that… a massive showcase of clever or pretty things from around the globe. Basically, the first World’s Fair.

Hyde Park was chosen as the venue. Along its southern edge was constructed the largest glass structure the world had ever seen. Its engineer Joseph Paxton managed to design and build the behemoth within a year, on time and on budget.

A postcard of Crystal Palace in 1851
This building was so huge it contained mature trees. Nothing like it had ever been seen before. Image: Public domain

It was a huge success. Over six million people attended. The show raised a surplus of over £21 million in today’s money, which went towards setting up the V&A, Science Museum and Natural History Museum. The great glass venue was later transported up to Sydenham where it staged exhibitions for another 85 years. It would be hard to pinpoint any other event in London’s history that left such a monumental cultural legacy.

The site of the Great Exhibition

If you want to stand on the site of the Great Exhibition today, head to the extreme southwest of Hyde Park. Where once stood the riches of the world is now a mostly empty field. You will find an information panel, however, and the Crystal Palace’s footprint is marked with five plaques — one at each corner and one to the south on the site of the main entrance. More tangible is a surviving set of gates that once guarded the northern transept of the Crystal Palace. The so-called Coalbrookdale Gates (after the Shropshire village where they were made… more of which later) can be found at the foot of W. Carriage Drive, the road that separates Kensington Gardens from Hyde Park.

The Crystal Palace’s second home on Sydenham Hill has a bit more to see. The great glass palace finally burned down in 1936 and nothing of its frame survives. But the stone terraces that once supported it are intact, and fun to explore at the western end of Crystal Palace Park.

There’s a ton more to say about both sites, but today I really want to focus on what was inside the Palace; the surviving treasures of 1851.

In Search of the Great Exhibits

Londonist: Time Machine likes to travel forwards through the years as well as backwards. And so I confidently predict that, in 2051, another showcase event will be held in London. It will mark not only the 200th anniversary of the Great Exhibition, but also the centenary of the 1951 Festival of Britain. Furthermore, it will be used to celebrate 2,000 years since the Romans founded London (probably more like 2046, but it's close enough). What an alignment of the spheres! What a party!

I fully intend to be there. Hell, I want to be on the organising committee. And here’s the first plank of my pitch. Why not reunite the surviving exhibits from the Great Exhibition? Perhaps bring them back to Hyde Park and show them off in a new glass palace designed by a bright young architect. We could do similar for the 1951 festival on the South Bank (and rebuild the Skylon!).

The first challenge is to identify what still exists from 1851. And that’s exactly what I’ll do with the rest of this article.

The following list is a mix of items I’ve chanced across over the years, either in person or by way of tip-off from other people. I will say at the outset, and in emboldened shouty typeface: this list is woefully incomplete. Some 100,000 objects were on display in the original exhibition, and I imagine that thousands still survive, dotted around the world, and many in private hands. Tracking them all down would be a full-time job.

But I’d like this to become as full a list as possible. So here’s the deal. Let me know in the comments (or by emailing [email protected]) if you’re aware of further objects and I’ll update the list accordingly (and credit you by name). It can be like a wiki page; ever evolving. And hopefully it’ll be of some use when the time comes to plan the Great Exhibition of 2051.

So, here’s my growing list, arranged in alphabetical order….

Blade tree: Worshipful Company of Cutlers

A weird ornament made from blades
Image: Matt Brown

This extraordinary object was made by apprentices of John Weiss Ltd, a London-based manufacturer of surgical instruments. It was crafted especially for the Great Exhibition and aptly contains 1851 blades. If I go quiet for a few weeks it’s because I’m suddenly inspired to write the screenplay for a horror movie…

Book case: V&A Museum

A bookcase from 1851 at the V&A
Image by Gryffindor under creative commons licence

Described as a “cathedral in wood”, this handsome but impractical book case was gifted to Victoria and Albert by Franz Joseph I of Austria, but not before it went on show in the Crystal Palace. It has since found its way into the V&A Museum, though is not currently on display.

I should note here that the V&A holds hundreds and hundreds of items relating to the exhibition — 3,595, in fact, according to a search of their pages. Many are paintings, drawing and souvenirs, but they also hold plenty of Great Exhibits. Indeed, the museum was founded partly as a way to store and show off some of the exhibition leftovers. I won’t list them all out, for obvious reasons.

Boy and Swan fountain: Ironbridge Gorge Museums

A fountain in Ironbridge from 1851
Image: Matt Brown

The Shropshire village of Coalbrookdale in Ironbridge Gorge is part of a World Heritage Site thanks to its contributions to iron making and the industrial revolution. Its furnaces found plenty of custom in the run-up to the Great Exhibition. One of the show’s great centrepieces was this Boy and Swan fountain, designed by John Bell. It stood in the north transept near the Coalbrookdale gates mentioned above. After the exhibition, it moved to Wolverhampton before some “wilderness years” where it seems to have gone missing. The damaged parts were later recovered and it’s now on show back in its home village.

A second major sculpture by John Bell, known as the Eagle Slayer, has also returned to Coalbrookdale after a long spell at the Museum of Childhood (now the Young V&A).

Cigar cabinets: James J. Fox, St James’s Street

This high-end tobacconist in St James’s contains a small museum dedicated to the inspiratory arts. It contains what are reputedly the oldest cigar cases in the world, which were used to show off smokes at the Great Exhibition. Ian has more info.

Clock: King’s Cross station

The clock of King's Cross
Image: Matt Brown

As already mentioned, this handsome devil was another graduate of the Great Exhibition. Designed by the famous Dent company, it stood in pride of place along the British Avenue of the Crystal Palace. King’s Cross station was under construction at the time, and the timepiece was snapped up to become its crowning glory. Sadly, much of its inner workings were replaced by electronic equipment in the mid-20th century.

Dentures: Royal College of Surgeons

A remarkably realistic set of dentures, crafted from hippo ivory, were one of the more unusual objects on display. The exquisite gnashers were the work of a William Parks, and are now in the care of the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons. Hat-tip to Laurence Scales.

Fountain: Castle Howard

An ornate fountain at Castle Howard in Yorkshire
Image: Matt Brown

This chunky fountain features four tritons who perpetually vomit water towards a central, despairing Atlas. Or, at least, they do if you’re luckier in your timing than I was on my visit to Castle Howard. The god-soaking fountain is the work of John Thomas (no sniggering) and was shown off at the Great Exhibition before its installation in Yorkshire. As a Grade I listed structure of 20 tonnes, I doubt it’ll be making the return journey for my prospective 2051 exhibition.

Gates: Ironbridge Gorge Museums

Gates at Ironbridge
Image: Matt Brown

Remember I told you about those original 1851 gates in Hyde Park? Well, they’re not entirely original. The gates were bashed by a lorry in 1986 and badly damaged. Repairs were carried out, but some of the mangled ironmongery could not be reused. Rather than chuck it away, Royal Parks donated it to the (wonderful) Ironbridge museums, for it was here that the gates were originally cast. The museums hold several other treasures from the exhibition, a few of which I’ve included elsewhere on this list.

Golden throne: V&A

A golden throne from the v and a
Image: V&A under creative commons licence

This is the Maharaja Ranjit Singh's throne, made in the 1820s or 30s to support the ruler of the Sikh Empire though, by all accounts, he preferred to sit on the carpet. The throne was snatched by the East India Company when they annexed the Punjab in 1849, and taken back to London for display in the Great Exhibition. It’s now in the hands of the V&A who have rebuffed repatriation claims. Hat-tip to Joanna Oyediran for the suggestion.

Greek Slave statue: Raby Castle

The supposedly prudish Victorians couldn’t get enough of this fully nude statue of a woman with her hands chained together. The Greek Slave by American sculptor Hiram Powers was one of the most celebrated at the exhibition, both for the beauty of its execution and as an abolitionist symbol. Powers made several full-size copies, and cheap replicas were a 19th century commonplace. The one shown at the Great Exhibition today resides in private ownership at Raby Castle in the north of England, but it’s easy enough to find knock-offs of this still iconic lady in many galleries around the world.

Koh-i-Noor diamond: Tower of London

Arguably the most famous (and controversial) survivor of the Great Exhibition is the magnificent jewel known as the Koh-i-Noor. Despite its status as one of the world’s largest diamonds, the stone failed to impress when on show in 1851. Prince Albert later had it re-cut to great acclaim, and it has dazzled ever since as part of the Crown Jewels. Various governments have laid claim to the gem, but it remains under lock and key in the Tower of London. Another diamond, the Daria-i-Noor, was also exhibited, and now resides in Tehran.

Mineral water cabinet: Royal Pump Room Museum, Harrogate

I chanced across this ornate cabinet while visiting the beautiful Yorkshire town of Harrogate. It was designed specifically for the Great Exhibition, to show off the town’s famous mineral water, at a time when drinking and bathing in the stuff was all the rage.

Model dwelling: Kennington Park

A balcony on a model dwelling in Kennington Park
Image courtesy of London Remembers

This curious cottage can be found tucked away along the western edge of Kennington Park. It was commissioned, and partly designed by Prince Albert as a model dwelling for the poor. The building did not stand within the Crystal Palace, but was instead erected in the yard of the adjacent Knightsbridge Barracks. The Prince’s stab at domestic architecture never found widespread appeal, but a similar design was implemented for Cromwell Buildings near Borough Market.

Octagonal table, Lincoln’s Inn Library

Reader Paul tips me off about a valuable eight-sided table designed by Pugin for the Great Exhibition. It’s in pride of place in Lincoln’s Inn Library, which can typically be accessed during Open House week.

Pipe organ, St Anne’s Limehouse

The Hawksmoor church of St Anne’s Limehouse suffered a devastating fire in 1850, which destroyed its historic pipe organ. The church replaced it with a gold-medal-winning specimen from the Great Exhibition, which remains playable to this day. Hat-tip to Heather Goff and Hannah Nicholas for this one.

Richard Coeur de Lion statue, Palace of Westminster

A statue of Richard I outside the Crystal Palace
A clay version of the statue outside the west entrance to the exhibition. Image: public domain

This famous statue has its roots at the Great Exhibition. A clay study for the sculpture by Baron Carlo Marochetti was displayed outside the west entrance, where it attracted much praise — even though the tail fell off on the first day. The bronze we see today in Old Palace Yard was cast a year later, but I feel it merits inclusion in this list because it was originally intended as a memorial to the Great Exhibition. Hat-tip to Rob Bolton for this one.

Perfume cabinet: Floris, 89 Jermyn St

Much as James J. Fox got its cigar cabinets from the Great Exhibition, so too this historic perfumery sourced its Spanish mahogany cabinets from the Crystal Palace. My thanks to the Ladies Who London podcast for tipping me off on that one — take a listen to their recent episode about the exhibition.

Rocking Chair: Harewood House

A red rocking chair at Harewood House
Image: public domain

Did you ever see a more inviting chair? This iron and crimson Morocco leather rocker can be found in Harewood House, midway between Harrogate and Leeds. It was purchased from the Great Exhibition by the Lascelles family, whose seat is — in both senses — still at Harewood.

Safe: London Silver Vaults

A sturdy safe in the London Silver Vaults
Image: Matt Brown

Among the objets d’art at the exhibition were many items of a more practical bent. This sturdy safe was one such, the work of John Tann Ltd of Hackney, and seems to have won a prize at the exhibition. It’s on show in the little-known London Silver Vaults beneath Chancery Lane, which you really ought to visit. John Tann also designed the security doors that protect this subterranean Aladdin’s cave.

Tara Brooch: National Museum of Ireland

This exquisite Celtic brooch was discovered in County Meath, Ireland around 1850 (not on the Hill of Tara… that was a marketing ploy). Dating from the 7th or 8th century, it was among the oldest objects on display at the exhibition the following year.

A final note: The University of Reading holds a collection of around 200 objects relating to the Great Exhibition, though most of these are prints, pamphlets and ephemera from the time rather than Great Exhibits.