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Crystal Palace Road - why is it named so ?


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The 'Crystal Palace', situated at the top end of LL, was a 16th Century gambling joint , drinking den and haunt of N'er do wells, footpads and general Wrong'uns, which was sadly closed down by encroaching 18th century embourgeisement. The road was named after this house of disrepute. When the Crystal Palace was moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham after the Great Exhibition the road coincidentally happened to be pointing in the right direction so the original derivation has been lost in the mist of times to all but the most hardened of gamblers and haters of the middle class....maybe


Yes I'm bored and have been on the sauce

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???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The 'Crystal Palace', situated at the top end of

> LL, was a 16th Century gambling joint , drinking

> den and haunt of N'er do wells, footpads and

> general Wrong'uns, which was sadly closed down by

> encroaching 18th century embourgeisement. The road

> was named after this house of disrepute. When the

> Crystal Palace was moved from Hyde Park to

> Sydenham after the Great Exhibition the road

> coincidentally happened to be pointing in the

> right direction so the original derivation has

> been lost in the mist of times to all but the most

> hardened of gamblers and haters of the middle

> class....maybe

>

> Yes I'm bored and have been on the sauce



--------------------------------------------------



Titter...


I am bored too & working, sadly no sauce....though that might change yet!

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With sheer deductive reasoning, Penguin68 has the day.


The road was built after the transfer of the CP building to Sydenham, but smack bang in the middle of the hype.


It was built as part of a 30 year housing boom to provide aspirational housing to upwardly mobile working classes.


It could never have been a thoroughfare, but undoubtedly would have provided a fair view in the right direction.


Feckin' Estate Agents.


Is there a section on this forum called 'Dull', I thought I might join?

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This website is quite good for things like this. Its maps seem to go back to around the mid 1800 up to the mid 1900's


www.old-maps.co.uk (the coordinates you need are 534042 / 174712


you can see it was called Crystal Palace Road on the oldest map for kent in 1874 before any of the buildings were put up. You can see the Lord Palmerston pub is marked (do you think the food was good?)


another good wesite for old maps is this one


http://www.ponies.me.uk/maps/osmap.html

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Well one thing is clear the name 'Crystal Palace' comes from the famous building itself.

The aera known as Crystal Palace now was formerly South Sydenham or something.

So the road must have take in its name from proximity to or association with (though how we know not) the CP itself.

I just want to know WHAT association with the CP..... maybe they just thought it a handy name......

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1874 was just about the time when the land was parcelled for development. The map may well have been a development sketch. Most of the houses went up between 1878 and 1890.


Most of the names were taken from the developer's enthusiasms. As odd as it seems a large part of the land was developed by very few builders.


The exception is the plots close to LL, where the houses were built in 3s or 5s. Crawthew Grove as we know it now had a dozen different terrace names dependent on how far along it you were. You can even tell from the house designs themselves. They have matching 'signature' bricks (like stylistic tweaks).

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I thought the name may have been because the ancient Kent / Surrey border run through what is now Crystal Palace Road - the link being that the Crystal Palace was built on the Surry / Kent border. However from this map of 1786 we can also see Goose Green and of course None Head.


Click to magnify


 

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