Uncoloured postcard of the Crystal Palace. Crystal Palace Park was designed between 1852 and 1854 by Joseph Paxton with the assistance of Edward Milner, in order to provide a setting for the augmented rebuilding of the Crystal Palace, originally erected in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851. The park was opened in 1854, and administered by the Crystal Palace Company until 1911, when it was sold and acquired by the London County Council. The Palace burned down in 1936, and the National Sports Centre constructed in 1964 across the main axis of the park. In 1986 the park was transferred from the Greater London Council to Bromley Council.