The Crystal Palace was a glass building in London from its construction in 1851 to its destruction in a fire in 1936.
Structure
The Palace was constructed almost entirely out of iron and glass, like a huge greenhouse. Charley Pollard was astonished by its sheer size when she visited the original model in Hyde Park, also referring to it as a "magnificent erection". (AUDIO: Other Lives) She had earlier told C'rizz that it was not an actual palace, but merely referred to as such due to its beauty. (AUDIO: The Next Life)
History
In Hyde Park
The palace was designed by Joseph Paxton to house The Great Exhibition and built in Hyde Park, London in 1851. (COMIC: The Eagle of the Reich) The Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory visited the Palace and Exhibition on the day before its opening. (COMIC: Hypothetical Gentleman)
The Eighth Doctor took his companions Charlotte Pollard and C'rizz to the Great Exhibition in 1851, shortly after their departure from the Divergent Universe. While there, Charley met and befriended the elderly Duke of Wellington. (AUDIO: Other Lives)
In Sydenham
After the Great Exhibition concluded, the palace was disassembled and reconstructed in South London, (COMIC: The Eagle of the Reich) or more specifically Sydenham, (COMIC: The Crystal Throne, AUDIO: A Spoonful of Mayhem) on 10 June 1854. The Tenth Doctor tried to take Heather McCrimmon to the reopening of the Crystal Palace that year, instead arriving in the 1930s. (COMIC: The Crystal Palace)
The Paternoster Gang visited the palace in the late 19th century, where they confronted Cornelia Basildon-Stone. (COMIC: The Crystal Throne)
Charlotte Pollard visited the Crystal Palace as a child. Her father had driven them there, stopping in Kingston on the way. (AUDIO: The Next Life)
On 30 November 1936, the Crystal Palace was destroyed in a large fire. (COMIC: The Eagle of the Reich, PROSE: Tomorrow's Fish and Chips) By one account, this was done by a hatched phoenix. The Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams came to the Palace at this time, although they had intended to visit it in 1851, and met up with Winston Churchill. (COMIC: The Eagle of the Reich) Another account indicated that the fire was started by the Tenth Doctor and Heather McCrimmon in order to defeat Victumas of the Dominion Sisterhood. (COMIC: The Crystal Palace)
Ibrahim Hadmani travelled back in time to witness the destruction of the Crystal Palace. (PROSE: Tomorrow's Fish and Chips)
References
The Fifth Doctor wanted to take Nyssa and Tegan Jovanka to there as "a treat" in the wake of Adric's death but instead ended up on the tarmac of Heathrow Airport in 1982. (TV: Time-Flight)
Upon visiting Venus in the far future, Professor George Litefoot compared the Venusian shanghorn to the dinosaurs on display in the Crystal Palace. (AUDIO: Voyage to Venus)