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Derby's Crystal Palace was 33-year wonder
Maxwell Craven recalls when Derby had its own mini Crystal Palace, built by Derby engineer Sir Charles Fox in 1859, which, sadly, was even shorter-lived than its grander, London namesake.
This showed Rose Hill Street with Rose Hill House, that romantic Jacobethan hybrid on the corner of Wilfred Street, with the South Lodge of the Arboretum opposite.
Another building caught my eye, opposite Rose Hill House and parallel to the street with a terrace, fountain and flagstaff on the north front and flanked by a double avenue of trees. It was clearly marked as Crystal Palace.
I had completely forgotten about Derby’s own mini Crystal Palace, although I can certainly remember the pub whose name recalled the long-vanished local wonder!
Knowing nothing about it, I decided to do some research at Derby Local Studies Library where, with much help from the staff there, I managed to piece together some basic facts.
Derby’s Crystal Palace was built in 1859 by Derby-born civil engineer Sir Charles Fox, who was Sir Joseph Paxton’s collaborator on the original Crystal Palace, built for the 1851 Great Exhibition on Hyde Park. Sir Charles, born in 1810, was the son of Francis Fox, a Wardwick GP.
The family were originally from Youlgreave where they made, and subsequently lost, a fortune in lead extraction up to the 17th century.
Dr Fox was a brother-in-law of the Strutt brothers, most notably, Joseph Strutt, donor of the Arboretum, and it seems that he is the key to the origin of the Crystal Palace.
Joseph Strutt bought a number of fields and closes on the south side of Osmaston Road and gave 11 acres of these to Derby to form the country’s first public park, the Arboretum, in 1840, keeping Rose Hill House and more of the land.
Charles Fox built the mini Crystal Palace on part of this leftover land. By this time, Rose Hill House had been sold but the remaining land probably stayed within the family, which would explain the choice of site, bearing in mind that Fox was a nephew by marriage of Joseph Strutt.
It may be that Fox was aided by an architect – perhaps even Sir Joseph Paxton – although his experience with the London prototype may have been sufficient for him to have designed and built it himself.
The ironwork and erection were left in the capable hands of J. and G. Haywood, of the Phoenix Foundry, who, five years later, got the job of making the glass and iron roof of Derby Market Hall on the strength of it.
He presumably put his own money into it – it cost £3,000 – and that it was through his influence that the two Russian guns captured at Sebastopol were acquired to stand either side of its main façade.
An early engraving shows it with 16 sets of windows on either side, ending in mini pavilions defined by rusticated piers. A later engraving shows only 10 bays on each side and no portico. Nevertheless, the building still ended up 240 by 40ft. It seems to have been run by a trust.
The inaugural event, held there in May 1859, was the annual show and grand fete of the Midland Horticultural Society. It subsequently housed many such shows for dogs, flowers, poultry, not to mention school sports days (see illustration), concerts and political meetings.
However, its usefulness was short-lived. The Derby Drill Hall, opened in 1869, was far more central and a more convenient space for concerts and meetings.
Falling revenues in the 1870s meant that maintenance started to become a burden. This was always expensive, as Britain’s climate was still emerging from its mini ice-age, and heavy snowfalls, combined with the damage caused by stone-throwing youths, played havoc with such a huge expanse of glass.
In the end it was sold, with its land, to Derby Corporation in 1892 to enlarge the Arboretum. The council immediately demolished the spectacular structure and moved the Crimean guns. Walking past today, you’d never know it had ever been there.
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