Nothing - really, absolutely nothing - says more about Victorian Britain and its capacity for brilliance than that the century's most daring and iconic building was entrusted to a gardener.

Bill Bryson
About This Quote

The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, was a vast glass and iron structure built in 1851 to house the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations. As a testament to how much it cost, it's said that the man who was paid to design it spent over £100,000 on its construction alone. However, when the Palace was completed in 1854, it was considered a failure. It was too big for the space allotted for use, and its roof kept collapsing under the weight of snow.

In 1860, when Queen Victoria came to visit the Palace, her husband Prince Albert did not appreciate its sweltering heat or his inability to see anything at all due to the metal roof's reflection. When she finally saw the Palace for herself, she described it as "nothing - absolutely nothing - says more about Victorian Britain and its capacity for brilliance than that the century's most daring and iconic building was entrusted to a gardener."

Source: At Home: A Short History Of Private Life

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