Crystal Palace School of Art, Science, and Literature, also known as Crystal Palace Company's School of Art, (1854–1936) was opened in 1854 by the Crystal Palace Company as a new enterprise, to occupy part of its buildings when it re-erected the Crystal Palace in suburban

Sydenham Sydenham may refer to: Places Australia * Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Sydenham railway station, Sydney * Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne ** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne ...

in 1853. The civil engineer and later first director of the

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, was appointed secretary. It was a part of the great movements for educational and social reform in nineteenth century Britain. The main buildings were destroyed by fire in 1936.

Ladies' division

The overwhelming majority of classes were for women:Musgrave, ''passim'' * Music – later the Crystal Palace School of Music, 1880, Arthur Sullivan taught piano and singing and was a part-time Professor of Theory, Harmony and Transposition at the school in the 1860s and 1870s. * Art – watercolours, sketching, figure drawing and modeling, painting in oils, later Crystal Palace School of Art * English language and literature * Literature of other nations especially French, German and Italian * History – English, European and Biblical * Sciences – zoology, botany, chemistry, physical geography, maths and arithmetic * Woodcarving * Dressmaking * Cookery

Notable faculty

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (15 August 18751 September 1912) was a British composer and conductor. Of mixed-race birth, Coleridge-Taylor achieved such success that he was referred to by white New York musicians as the "African Mahler" when ...

* August Manns * Edward Milner * Ebenezer Prout * Harry Windsor–Fry * Christopher Dresser

Notable students

Gentlemen's division

Classes for gentlemen were limited to the School of Engineering, later Crystal Palace School of Engineering 1872. The South Tower was demolished in the early 1940sHenry Petroski, ''An Engineer's Alphabet: Gleanings from the Softer Side of a Profession,'' Cambridge University Press 2011 Cambridge UK but a surviving part of the School of Engineering's premises is now the Crystal Palace Museum.

Notable engineering students

* William Beckett * William Warwick Buckland * Joseph Day *

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* Charles Grey *

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* H. F. S. Morgan *

David McKee Wright David McKee Wright (6 August 1869 – 5 February 1928) was an Irish-born poet and journalist, active in New Zealand and Australia. Early life Wright was born at Ballynaskeagh, County Down, Ireland, the second son of Rev. William Wright, D.D. ( ...

The South Tower also contained John Logie Baird's transmitter and studios.

The end of the Crystal Palace brings to mind memories of the School of Engineering which was housed in the South Tower, fortunately still standing firm as a rock. This school, founded by J. W. Wilson, M.I.M.E., an engineer who helped to build the Great Exhibition of 1851, sent many of its students to the four quarters of the globe. The curriculum of the school included mechanical and civil courses and about five of the circular rooms were used. There was a fitting shop, pattern shop, and drawing office. Those in the mechanical section built a 4 h.p. vertical engine which was generally exhibited at the head of the stairs on the south side of the Palace. In the Civil Engineering section we surveyed the whole of the grounds, and drew plans and made estimates for an imaginary railway which extended from one side to the other. This entailed all the necessary estimates for embankments, a cantilever bridge etc. Then there was the Colonial section presided over by a most congenial superintendent, who had no doubt seen much of a pioneer's life and infused his enthusiasm into those who belonged to his section. Concerning the rigidity of the South Tower, I was working in a high storey soon after joining the school when there was a strong wind, and, feeling giddy, I mentioned it to the superintendent. He informed me that it rocked several inches at the top, which made it safer than absolute rigidity.
:Mr F. C. Bell, 74, Berners Street, Ipswich., Letter to The Editor, ''The Times'', Monday Dec. 07, 1936. page 10, issue 47551

Examinations

The school was a centre for the examinations of the Oxford and Cambridge syndicates.

Notes

References

*Musgrave, Michael. ''The Musical Life of the Crystal Palace'', Cambridge University Press, 1995, Cambridge, UK

Ladies' division

Notable faculty

Notable students

Music students

Art students

Literature students

Speech and drama students

Gentlemen's division

Notable engineering students

Examinations

See also

Notes

References

Further reading