Water towers

NOTES: Joseph Paxton designed Sydenham Park as the garden setting for his Crystal Palace, which was erected in Hyde Park in 1851 for the Great Exhibition and rebuilt in a greatly enlarged and amended form at Sydenham in 1852-1854. Since this giant glasshouse stood at the summit of a very steep hill, Paxton chose a formal, terraced design, inspired by the Italian villa gardens he had seen whilst on the Grand Tour with the 6th Duke of Devonshire in 1838-1839.

NOTES: The water tower is known as Svampen, 'the mushroom'.

NOTES: This structure was built in 1923 as a water tower to supply Thorpeness village with the fanciful exterior to disguise its utilitarian function. There is living accommodation around the tower below the water tank (which is no longer used).

NOTES: Brunel's water towers were built to feed Joseph Paxton's new fountains on the Italian terraces in front of the Crystal Palace, Sydenham. They were demolished during World War II so as not to provide a landmark to bomber aircraft. This photograph comes from the archive of Sir Anthony Wakefield Cox (1915-1993).