An aerial view of Crystal Palace.

The Crystal Palace, built originally for the Great Exhibition of 1851and then moved to Sydenham Hill, came to dominate the surrounding areas -both architecturally and socially. It provided a spectacular forum forleisure and culture where thousands could be entertained.

Below, three of those visitors tell the Guardian of their vividmemories.

Mrs Phyllis Hall from Eden Road, Croydon writes: "The lovely pictureof the Crystal Palace in the Guardian edition of September 2, brought backsome lovely memories for me.

"My parents took me to see the First World War Exhibition in 1920which at the time I thought was wonderful - not realising what the horrorof wars were. From then on I was hooked on "the Palace".

"When I was 12 I joined The National Temperance Society through TheBand of Hope and sang in their choirs of 5,000 voices. It was such anexciting event.

"There was such a lot to see and do at the Palace that it was theavant garde of today's leisure centres. I look back with pleasure tothink how lucky I was to have been able to go there."

John Mathews of South Norwood Hill remembers both the interior of thePalace and also his father's account of the devastating fire of 1936.He writes: "Living near the Crystal Palace from an early age I stillhave many memories of the wonderful place.

"Space does not permit much detail but amongst those memories areBrocks Fireworks displays once a week in the summer with enormous setpieces such as the battle of Jutland and indoor events such as the Southof England Badminton Championships - the name of Mrs Uber a frequentwinner I still remember.

"The South London Exhibition had Alfredo and his band playing. Istill have an autographed report of his polish tenor singer Jan Zalski. Onthe speedway track in the grounds our heroes were Ron Johnson and RogerFrogley.

"My father played in the amateur orchestra which gave concertsalways with a top-line guest singer including Walter Glynne, LeonardGowings, Kate Winter and Stiles Allen.

"He also played in the enormous orchestra which with a chorus ofhundreds performed in the Handel Festival. One memory I have which Icannot recall being written about anywhere is that Sir Henry Woodconducted the orchestra at one time and my mother took me to listen to arehearsal.

"Whenever Sir Henry wanted to stop the orchestra to make a commenthe would make a signal to a small girl standing beside him - his daughterperhaps - who would ring a bell, ensuring everyone, even at the back, gotthe message.

"On the night of the 30th November 1936 my father was in the concertroom rehearsing with the orchestra when they were told there was a smallfire at the far end of the Palace but not to worry. They continued playinguntil the messenger returned urging them to run for their lives as thefire was spreading with incredible speed.

"My father, once out of the building, ran along Anerley Hill torescue his books and papers as the office was under the shadow of thesouth water tower which looked likely to collapse at any minute as smokewas pouring from the top - amazingly it remained standing amongst thecomplete devastation of the smoking wreck that was the wonderful CrystalPalace.

"Towards the end it was perhaps no longer displaying its formerglories but its like will never be seen again."

Thornton Heath resident, 73-year-old Pamela Mary Soar recalls: "Earlyin 1936 I won a silver medal for an under-11 relay race at a sportsmeeting at the Crystal Palace - I still have this medal.

"Later in November that year the great fire of the Crystal Palacetook place.

"As an 11-year-old I watched the fire standing on coal trucks on thelow level railway opposite. I remember when I returned home my motherhanging out of the window crying her eyes out at such a dramatic scene."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.