Prehistoric Animal Sculptures, Geological Formations And Lead Mine On Islands And On Land Facing The Lower Lake

Sculptures of prehistoric animals with associated geological strata and lead mine, constructed between 1852 and 1855 for The Crystal Palace Company on a twenty acre site in Crystal Palace Park.

The prehistoric animals were constructed from reconstituted stone on a framework of iron rods mounted on brick plinths by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, an artist and sculptor specialising in natural history subjects. Sir Richard Owen provided advice on their authenticity. The associated geological strata and lead mine were probably laid out by David Thomas Ansted, consulting geologist, and constructed by James Campbell using geological rocks. The landscape was designed to represent the geology of Britain from the Primary (Pre-Cambrian and Lower Palaeolithic) rocks through the Secondary (Upper Palaeolithic-Upper Cretaceous) and Tertiary (Tertiary and Quaternary) eras, with economic rocks, geological structures and reconstructions of associated animals and reptiles positioned on the lakeside and islands.

To the south west of the site facing the lower lake is a cliff constructed to illustrate the coal formation, with old red sandstone at the base, new red sandstone above, and mountain limestone and millstone grit above this. To the south west of this is a three-quarters scale representation of a Derbyshire lead mine with cave complete with stalactites. To the east is the Secondary island illustrating the Secondary era with geological features including tilted red sandstone, Lias Oolite and Wealden rocks, surmounted by chalk at the head of the island. On top of the rocks are reconstructions of animals recovered from these geological formations: two Dicynodonts and three Labrinthodonts from New Red Sandstone, three Icthyosaurs and three Plesiosaurs from the Lias, two Teleosaurus and two Pterodactyls reconstructed in fibreglass from the Oolite and Chalk, one Megalosaurus from Stonefield Slate and its prey from the Weald, two Iguanodons and one Hyaelosaurus and the chalk marine monster Mosasaurus. Originally the lake water rose and fell as the park fountains played, alternately submerging and revealing the aquatic animals. Separated from the Secondary island by a weir is the Tertiary island with animals placed on a geological backdrop of worked aggregates representing this era's relatively unconsolidated rocks, comprising two Palaeotheriums and three Anoplotheriums from the Paris basin, one Megatherium from South America and four Megaceros or Irish Elk.

Further planned reconstructions for the Secondary era and none of the Primary era were ever constructed as the project ran into financial difficulties and was terminated in 1855.

This was the first attempt to accurately reconstruct the three dinosaur species known to the scientific world by the 1850s within their geological environment. The sculptures and associated geological strata form a unique display of the state of palaeontological understanding in the 1850s, opened five years before the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species. The site is of exceptional historic interest in a national and probably international context.