Subway, Vestibule, Terrace and Stairs to the Crystal Palace

Pedestrian subway, vestibule, terrace and stairs to the Crystal Palace, opened 1865, designed by Charles Barry Junior.

MATERIALS: the main structure is a built from red and cream brick, and has paved floors in alternating stone, and stone steps.

PLAN: the subway was built to link the Crystal Palace High Level railway station (now demolished), which stood in a cutting on the north-west side of Crystal Palace Parade, with the Palace to the south-east.

From a terrace on the north-west side, railway passengers would enter the vaulted subway crossing beneath Crystal Palace Parade, and emerge in a glass-roofed vestibule (roof no longer extant) to the south-east, which communicated with four staircases, two ascending for entry to the central transept of the palace, and two for departure. A stair from the north-west terrace enabled access to Crystal Palace Parade, above.

EXTERIOR: the north-west is the only external elevation of the subway, which is otherwise subterranean. It is built in cream brick with a parapet to the road above, and has four wide segmental-arched openings, lined in red brick. The terrace is paved in stone slabs laid in a diamond pattern, with star formations at either side. There has been repair and replacement in concrete.

INTERIOR: the subway has three parallel rows of five octagonal columns, with half-octagonal responds against oblong piers at either end and along the walls; all are cream brick with moulded stone capitals and ovolo stone mouldings to the brick bases. Circular fan faults rise from each in red and cream brick laid to form diamonds. Ovolo-moulded stone defines each vault, between which are circular roundels with polychromatic diapering, and a central cast-iron gas light fitting. The side walls are cream brick between the piers, with a border of red brick. At the northern corner there is an L-shaped porcelain channel in the floor, a remnant from the use of the subway as an air raid shelter.

The vestibule has retaining walls to either side, with stairs ascending to ground level at the south-east end. The side walls have three segmental arches lined in red brick, the northernmost two of which are blind, and the southernmost opening into tunnels lined in buff brick, with stairs ascending to ground level. The south-east side of the vestibule mirrors the entrance to the subway with its four arches: the outer two are blind, and the central two open, reached by a short flight of steps which then have a quarter turn from which staircases rise to ground level. A wall separates the two flights, which would have served for entrance and departure, and the retaining walls are cream brick. At the top of the north-west and south-east walls traces of the two shallow pitches of the roof remain.