Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace has a number of meanings:

• The Crystal Palace was a Victorian iron and glass building, originally in Hyde Park, London for the Great Exhibition, and subsequently rebuilt in south London. It was destroyed by fire in 1936.

• Crystal Palace, London is an area near which the second building was located.

• Crystal Palace Football Club played at The Crystal Palace until 1915, but now plays at nearby Selhurst Park.

• Crystal Palace National Sports Centre sits near the south London location of the original Palace, within Crystal Palace Park.

• Crystal Palace was the name of the dance hall in San Antonio, New Mexico some decades ago; it is now the residence of James Bond, a real person.

Crystal palace is also sometimes used as a mildly derogatory term for any structure that is pompously impressive from the outside, but not necessarily so functionally useful as might have been hoped.