Crystal Palace Bowl facts for kids

The Crystal Palace Bowl is a famous outdoor music spot in South London. It has hosted amazing live music for over 60 years, and people have been enjoying performances here for more than a hundred years! It has a cool, unique stage designed by Ian Ritchie Architects. This stage won many awards and was even nominated for the important RIBA Stirling Prize in 1998.

The Bowl is located in a natural dip in the ground, like a giant bowl, which can hold up to 15,000 people. The stage faces a pretty lake, which was part of the original design for Crystal Palace Park by Joseph Paxton. This area is known as the 'English Garden Landscape'. The Crystal Palace Bowl is found within the historic Crystal Palace Park in the London Borough of Bromley.

From 1961, the Bowl regularly hosted classical music concerts with groups like the London Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1971 to the early 1990s, some of the world's biggest music stars played here. They performed rock, pop, punk, blues, jazz, roots, and reggae at the ‘Garden Party’ festivals and later at events organized by the Greater London Council. Famous concerts included those by Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, Elton John, The Beach Boys, Lou Reed, The Cure, and Pixies.

The Bowl hasn't been used for music for several years, and the stage needs repairs. However, since March 2020, the London Borough of Bromley Council has been working with a local group to find new ideas to bring this special concert spot back to life.

A Long History of Fun

After the Great Exhibition of 1851, the amazing Crystal Palace building was moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham. Joseph Paxton, the original architect, then redesigned 200 acres of land around it. This created a spectacular Victorian park for everyone to enjoy.

The North West part of these grounds, now known as Crystal Palace Park, was first used for archery shows. It was called the ‘English Garden Landscape’. People described it as: ‘On a beautiful slope bordered by trees is the archery ground... Nearby is [a] small piece of water... and beside it a beautiful grove of trees forming a pleasant summer shade’.

The sloped ground was perfect for large groups. From the 1880s, it was used for regular balloon flights that drew huge crowds. In 1884, a ‘Venetian Fete’ was held, lighting up the English Garden Landscape with 15,000 oil lamps and 2,000 colorful Chinese Lanterns hanging from trees. The small lake was decorated with floating lights that looked like rings stretching into the distance. These lights were put together by Brocks Fireworks, famous for their firework displays at the Palace.

The Pageant of London

For the 1911 Festival of Empire at Crystal Palace, a big show called the ‘Pageant of London’ was held in this natural outdoor space. Frank Lascelles created this huge theatrical show. It featured 15,000 performers telling the story of London, Britain, and the Empire. The music was written by 17 composers, including Edward Elgar and Gustav Holst.

A temporary grandstand was built for 10,000 people. There were 120 performances between June and September 1911, and over 1 million visitors came to see the Pageant. A newspaper review from The Times said it was hard to imagine a better mix of theater and the natural beauty of the area. This event was the first time this part of the park was used for such a large public performance. It was a very important moment for big outdoor shows in the 20th century.

Music Under the Sky

After the success of the 1951 Festival of Britain, a new plan was made in 1955 for the park. The park had been closed since the Crystal Palace burned down in 1936. The plan included a new stage for outdoor concerts.

An elegant concrete and steel stage was planned for the small lake, facing the natural amphitheater. This design was never built. However, work soon began on a temporary stage for concerts.

In June 1961, the new Crystal Palace Concert Bowl opened with a performance. This brought back a music tradition that went back over a century to the great Handel Festivals. The ‘Music in the Open Air’ and 'Proms in the Park' classical concerts became very popular. They continued for over 45 years until about 2007.

Garden Party Festivals

After ten years of only classical music, young music promoters Harvey Goldsmith and Michael Alfondary convinced the Greater London Council to allow big rock and pop events at Crystal Palace Bowl.

Goldsmith and Alfondary teamed up with John and Tony Smith, who managed many major bands. Together, they launched the 'Crystal Palace Garden Party' in May 1971. At that time, big multi-day music festivals were usually in the countryside, like The Isle of Wight Festival (1968) and Glastonbury Festival (1970). The Crystal Palace Garden Party was different. It was a smaller, one-day festival closer to the city.

The Garden Party events happened twice a year. They quickly became known for their mix of different music styles. Sometimes, excited audience members would even go into the lake to get a closer look at the stage! Fun and unexpected things often happened. At one event in 1972, The Who drummer Keith Moon was the host. He arrived by helicopter, then by hovercraft to the stage. After that, he took a rowing boat on the lake, dressed as a pirate, and served tea and cake to people near the water.

Sometimes, the nearby TV transmitter in the park caused problems with the sound system. Music would accidentally be interrupted by radio commentary from a cricket match!

Over 10 years, many famous guitarists played at Crystal Palace. These included Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Rory Gallagher, Ronnie Wood, Mick Taylor, and John McLaughlin.

The Garden Party events reached their peak in the summer of 1980 when Bob Marley played to a record crowd. This was his last concert in London and one of his final performances before he passed away the next year. A blue plaque on the stage remembers this event. From 1981, the Greater London Council took over organizing events in London parks. Under their new leader, Ken Livingston, these events sometimes had a political message.

On the day of the Royal Wedding in 1981, the 'It's Only Rock 'n' Royal' event was held at the Bowl. Ian Dury was the main performer. In 1983, Curtis Mayfield headlined the GLC Peace Picnic ‘Blues in the Bowl’. In 1984, the ‘London Against Racism’ and ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ concerts brought world music stars like Jimmy Cliff, Hugh Masakela, Gil Scott-Heron, and Segun Adewale. In 1985, a concert organized by Pete Townshend featured Hawkwind followed by the famous singer Dame Vera Lynn.

Events at the Bowl stopped for a short time after the GLC was closed down in 1986. They started again in 1990 with a concert headlined by The Cure. In 1991, Pixies played their biggest UK show. Blues and American music festivals brought legends like Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Ry Cooder, and Emmylou Harris to South London. The old temporary stage at the Bowl closed in 1994/95 to make way for a new permanent stage.

Other parts of the park also hosted live music. The Crystal Palace National Sports Centre held large legal dance music events called 'Elevation and Reincarnation' from 1991-1994. Capital FM 'Party at the Palace' shows on the park terraces featured early performances by Take That and East 17. The athletics stadium at the Sports Centre, which could hold up to 40,000 people, welcomed bands like Depeche Mode, Paul Weller, and Santana in the 1990s and early 2000s.

In 2002, the Sex Pistols reunited for a huge 'Pistols at the Palace' festival. Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band played two shows in 2003. A pair of Coldplay concerts in 2005 were the last big gigs at Crystal Palace so far.

The Modern Stage

In 1996, a competition was held by the London Borough of Bromley and Arts Council England to design a new permanent stage for the park. Ian Ritchie Architects won with their idea for a "simple structure causing minimal disturbance" to the beautiful park landscape.

The stage's shape was inspired by artists and architects who used a single material and a continuous surface. They chose Corten Steel, which rusts naturally to a deep red color. This was one of the first public buildings in the UK to use this material for its outside walls. The red color was chosen to match the earthy tones of the soil and the reflections of the sky in the lake, helping the stage blend in with the natural beauty around it.

The stage is very large, 25 meters wide and 15 meters deep, big enough for a full 120-piece orchestra. The roof, which helps with sound, hangs over the stage and reaches 11.34 meters high. The structure also had the world's first computer-controlled outdoor sound system, designed by Paul Gilleron. This allowed the stage's sound to be adjusted for different performers. The roof has 46 speakers, and two tall columns on either side of the stage hold more speakers and sound equipment.

The new stage opened in August 1997 with a performance by Evelyn Glennie. In 1998, it was nominated for the RIBA Stirling Prize. It also won the Royal Fine Arts Commission Building of the Year Award, a Civic Trust Award, and the 'Excellence in Design' award from the American Institute of Architects.

Images for kids

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  Bob Marley performing at the Crystal Palace Bowl, 1980

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  The Crystal Palace Concert Platform, constructed in 1997