Section 3 of the Capital Ring was from Grove Park to Crystal Palace. Quickly after starting, we were onto the path called the Railway Children Walk, named after the book (and film), The Railway Children. The book’s author used to walk in the Grove Park nature reserve.
Although without many points of interest, the first section was pleasant.
Crystal Palace is famous for two things: the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the tall BBC transmitter, from which Londoners receive their TV signal today.
The Great Exhibition was promoted by Prince Albert, who later used the profits to build the Victoria & Albert, Science, and Natural History Museums in South Kensington.
The Exhibition’s primary purpose was to promote British industry, but other countries were also present. Open for six months, the Exhibition attracted over 40,000 visitors per day — a total of six million people, an astonishing third of Britain at the time. The original location of the Exhibition was Hyde Park. The structure was moved to Sydenham Hill in 1954, which was renamed Crystal Palace. In 1936, a fire destroyed the building.
Since we’d made good time, we continued with section 4 to Streatham, the highlight being Biggin Wood — an ancient oak woodland.
