Historic England adds Crystal Palace’s lifesize dinosaurs added to heritage at risk register

Crystal Palace is located in London.
Crystal Palace is located in London.Image: Peter Cooper Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Changing water levels are threatening a Victorian Jurassic park that has fascinated and thrilled generations of visitors for 166 years.

Historical England announced the addition of the Jurassic park to the heritage at risk register due to cracks appearing in the statues and missing toes. It was created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, one of the finest natural history artists of the Victorian era. It created a lot of excitement since it was created only 10 years after the coining of the term ‘dinosaur’.

It was one of the first examples of outdoor edutainment. Ellinor Michel, the chair of Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs says “… there was an absolute beauty and real theatricality to the way he put things together.”

To find out more about the birthplace of dinomania, log on to The Guardian.

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