Transmission

I don't know that Joy Division had the Crystal Palace mast in mind when they recorded Transmission but it will have been transmitted on TV and radio to the people of Greater London and the home counties by this totemic structure. The mast was built in 1956 and was the tallest building in London before the Canary Wharf developments. It is still the 8th tallest structure in London. I took the opportunity of a traffic light stop on the way over to Adele's today to grab the photo. The Crystal Palace itself was a cast iron and plate glass edifice designed by Joseph Paxton for the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851. It was huge with 990,000 square feet of exhibition space. It was relocated to Sydenham in 1854 which must have been one mega removal job. It then became an entertainment and concert venue at which my mother once performed in a Concert of a Thousand Violins. Sadly it burnt down in 1936.