Just a memory

Crystal Palace 1936

One of my first memories was when I was five years old, I was in my back garden, playing with my ten year old brother Ken, and my older brother , Bill who was twelve years old. A neighbour shouted over the garden wall, that a big fire had started, have a look.
  We lived in Dulwich near a very large park. The neighbour said the fire was the other side of the park. As there were houses between us and the park, we couldn’t see, so we went up to the fourth floor of our house to see, but all we could see was smoke.
My two brothers, with me in tow, ran through the streets to Dulwich Park. Across the fields, way up above the Dulwich Woods, on the hill, we could see the fire, smoke billowing high in the air, flames reflecting off the glass that covered the Crystal Palace.
We could see the two glass towers at each end , with the middle alight with dense smoke. As it was about three miles from where we were, my brothers said that they had better not take me with them to the fire, so we all returned home.
The fire burned through that night. The next day we asked our mother if we could go to see what the fire had done, and she agreed provided they kept me close to them. She gave us the money for our fare.
We caught the tram from the tram stop a few doors from our home, to Lordship Lane Railway Station, then a train to Crystal Palace High Level Station. When we got off I thought that the station was the Crystal Palace as it was so large with at least ten platforms and a glass covered roof.
We climbed up lots of stairs from the Station to the wide road above, across the road were the smouldering remains of the Crystal Palace!
There was much confusion , fire engines, hoses, ladders, black water everywhere, people and cars, rows of buses and trams. There was a terrible smell of rubber and horsehair, iron girders sticking up , glued together with the glass that had melted in the heat, then set as it cooled down. Just two high towers stood, something like lighthouses, but the glass had all gone. Between the two all had been burnt.
There had been an exhibition of all the goods that had been traded around the world all this and the wooden floor had been burnt, as was the new fire engine on show. This was the very latest, designed to give a great force of water, and was named, “The Princess of Wales”. Unfortunately, the only water available was on a water tower in the grounds, but this was soon used up. As the Crystal Palace was built at the top of Sydenham Hill, water could not be taken from the fire hydrants in the road , as the pressure was low.
Hoses were put into the lakes, in the grounds, where the models of prehistoric Animals, lay half submerged in the water, soon they were left high and dry, as the water pumps drained all the water, through the hoses to the fire, but this did not last long. We moved about the grounds , but could not get near the ruins, the heat was still very hot you could feel it as the wind blew over it in your direction, the smell was the worst, so we went home dirty, dusty, but happy to have seen it, we waited for the train, got the tram, wanting our tea, Mum said “change your clothes and wash first!”
This was my first memory of the Crystal Palace.
My next was in 1939 when the Army blew up the two towers, as the second world war had started, it was thought the Towers would be a landmark for German Aircraft.

By Zimmerman aged 5