Looming out of the woodland, one of the famous Iguanodon dinosaur sculptures in the public Crystal Palace Park in South East London. The dinosaurs were constructed in the park in 1854 when the former 1851 Great Exhibition glass ‘palace’ was moved to Sydenham after the exhibition closed. The new, extensive pleasure gardens contained a collection of around 30 ‘dinosaurs’ and other extinct creatures, which are now known to be anatomically inaccurate. They are, however, a famous and much-loved attraction in South East London. The sculptures were created by one of the 19th-century’s best-known natural history sculptors, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1807-1894). The landscape in which they are set was designed by Joseph Paxton, designer of the Crystal Palace glass building. The Past | History | Environment | Nature | Travel Destinations