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Realistic looking sculpture in black marble with polished surface of a gorilla on all fours. Based on Guy, the gorilla who was a very popular attraction at London Zoo. The animal is leaning forward resting on powerful arms and hands. He is on a black marble base set on a rough-cast pale grey plinth in granite(?). Statue faces away from lake.

This sculpture dates from a period when Wynne was mostly concerned with animal observation and carving.(1) The Crystal Palace was originally built in Hyde Park to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Committee planning the exhibition was headed by Prince Albert who was very much involved with the whole enterprise, but they were unable to settle on a satisfactory design for the exhibition building until Joseph Paxton, Head Gardener at Chatsworth House, presented them with a revolutionary design, all in glass and cast iron. Ribs of white-painted cast iron supported the vast windows and it soon came to be known as the Crystal Palace, a name conferred on it in a newspaper article. The exhibition was a tremendous success with the public and drew in over six million visitors during the five and a half months it was open 1851. There had always been a vociferous opposition to the whole idea, and this had ensured that any structure put up in Hyde Park had to be removed at the close of the exhibition. Paxton and others wanted the revolutionary building to survive, and the Crystal Palace Company was formed to buy it and transport it elsewhere. A site was found in south London, Penge Place, Sydenham, at the top of a hill sloping down towards Penge and commanding an extensive view over Kent. The structure was remodelled when it was rebuilt on this site and made considerably larger than the original had been. It was opened by Queen Victoria on 10 June 1854. In both the Palace and the park which was created round it, the emphasis was on education and spectacle, and planned on a huge scale. Inside the building were permanent collections and space for changing exhibitions. There was a series of Fine Art courts filled with reproductions of sculptures and other works to illustrate different eras in the history of art. The park, of 200 acres, was laid out with gardens, two huge terraces, many statues, and, notably, an extensive and elaborate series of water features. The grounds are attributed to Edward Milner and Georger Eyles. They incorporated the still extant dinosaur islands, geological features and life-size prehistoric monster models. The move to Sydenham had been very costly and the enterprise always suffered from a lack of money even though it was popular. Land was sold off for development and by 1911 the Crystal Palace Company was bankrupt. To save the Palace from demolition, the Duke of Plymouth bought it for £230,000, and a fund, the King Edward National Memorial Fund, was started by the Lord Mayor of London. In 1913 the Palace was bought for the nation. After the First World War its popularity revived under the General Manager, Sir Henry Buckland, who gradually restored it. The gardens were tended and the statues, including that of Joseph Paxton, were put back. It again became a venue for many popular events such as concerts, motorcycle racing and other sporting events. The Palace was destroyed by a fire which broke out on the evening of 30 November 1936, and raged through the building providing a spectacle which was watched from all over London. The building was almost completely destroyed and the site was cleared in 1937. In 1951 responsibility for the area passed to the London County Council, later the Greater London Council. They were required to develop the site for the purposes of education and recreation and for the furtherance of commerce, art and industry. Some unsympathetic development took place, notably the very concrete National Sports Centre which is right in the centre of the park, sited where the great fountain basins had been in. The area has been subject to much vandalism over the years. Traces of original buildings and some of the landscaping features remain, as well as some which show the sporting, musical and other uses to which areas of the park were put over the years. Bromley Council is now taking the park in hand, with the aid of Heritage Lottery funding. Various projects are underway to conserve and restore the historical features of the park and improve the whole environment, although as the sporting facilities at its centre have now been listed, there is a restriction on what can be done.

Modelled on Guy, the gorilla at London Zoo in Regent’s Park who was a popular attraction. He came from the French Cameroons via Paris at the age of about two. He died at the age of 32 in 1978.

circa

raw year

Condition

At risk

Inscriptions

Signatures

Sculpture

Black marble?(granite?)

120cm high x 108cm wide x 132cm deep

Base

19cm high x 112cm wide x 136cm deep

Plinth

92cm high x 125cm wide x 150cm deep

Abrasions, cracks, splits

Scratching down side of sculpture base through children climbing up. Surface roughened in parts. Some scratchiung under chin. Crack running down beneath chin, on gorilla' right

None

Condition good considering that children are climbing over sculpture all the time

Graffiti

Writing in paint on forehead and on plinth. Pink stuff spilt on base of sculpture at back