Crystal Palace after the Great Exhibition of 1851. Interior of the transept area of the iron and glass pavilion built to house the The Great Exhibition, held in Hyde Park, London, England, from May to October 1851. This is the central exhibition space, with a curved roof enclosing live elm trees growing in the park. The roof was 33 metres high. The building, which was later moved to South London, was destroyed by fire in 1936. The Great Exhibition contained 100,000 exhibits from around the world, half being from Britain and the British Empire. Photograph by pioneering British photographer Benjamin Brecknell Turner (1815-1894).