Grade I-listed sculptures restored and repainted as part of wider overhaul of park
HTA Design has revealed its refurbishment of Crystal Palace Park’s grade I-listed dinosaurs.
The famously inaccurate sculptures, a popular visitor attraction for more than 150 years, were built in the 1850s and represented the latest scientific understanding at the time.
They have now been removed from Historic England’s heritage at risk register following the restoration, which is part of a wider refurbishment of the park designed for Bromley council and Crystal Palace Park Trust.
It marks the completion of the first phase of the park’s refurbishment, which has also included a restoration of the grade II-listed Italian terraces and the construction of a new dinosaur-themed playground.
The dinosaur sculptures were conceived by Crystal Palace architect Joseph Paxton as the first stage of a “journey through time” culminating in the Crystal Palace building itself, which had been relocated from its original site in Hyde Park following the Great Exhibition of 1851.
The restoration has employed material testing and historic paint analysis to repair the sculptures while retaining as much original fabric as possible, using specialist cleaning, structural repairs and the use of 3D printing.
New additions include gravel formations showing successive geological ages created around the sculptures to reflect the original narrative purpose of the site as an educational experience.
The landscape of the Geological Park in which the dinosaurs are located has also been restored, with the lake desilted and a new circulation system installed to improve the site’s waterfalls.
The scheme has been carried out in collaboration with Donald Insall Associates, Alan Baxter Associates, Sally Strachey Heritage Conservators and the Friends of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.
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