Tuesday, 21 July 2026

Celebrating the Return of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

A year ago I went for a sad walk around Crystal Palace Park to say goodbye to the giant Victorian dinosaurs. I knew then that they weren't going for good, but it would be last time I'd see them for a long while because they were much in need of repair. I blogged about it with photos at the time, and you can see the post here.

Last weekend I went to the park again for a celebration of their full restoration. They were specially illuminated with coloured lighting for two nights. I took the photos you can see on this page.

They aren't all dinosaurs. The statues represent a variety of prehistoric animals including amphibians, reptiles and early mammals. They're also not exactly accurate, but were what they were believed to look like back in the 19th century. Nowadays they are part of London's history and folklore, and are worth seeing even without lighting effects. 




Green London
I consider myself lucky to have Crystal Palace Park on my doorstep, as well as several other parks, and I regularly blog about London's green spaces in an effort to dispel a prevalent myth in the pagan community that the city is just all concrete. Even in the City, which is of course heavily built up, there are still places where nature thrives, while Greater London has huge areas of woods, commons, gardens and, of course, public parks.

The pictures on this post were all taken by me. Please do not use them without my permission.


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