Garden Palace

[1] This was largely due to the importation from England of electric lighting, which enabled work to be carried out around the clock.

A reworking of London's Crystal Palace, the plan for the Garden Palace was similar to that of a large cathedral, having a long hall with lower aisle on either side, like a nave, and a transept of similar form, each terminating in towers and meeting beneath a central dome.

It was constructed primarily from timber, which ensured its complete destruction when engulfed by fire in the early morning of 22 September 1882.

[4] A 1940s-era sunken garden and fountain featuring a statue of Cupid marks the former location of the Palace's dome.

An 1878 Bechstein concert grand piano, that won a first prize, had luckily been removed from the Garden Palace prior to the fire, and is held by the Powerhouse Museum.

Garden Palace at the Sydney International Exhibition (1879)
An 1879 engraving
The palace in 1880
Sydney's Garden Palace; an architectural drawing from the 1870s
colour illustration from a newspaper of the Garden Palace building engulfed by a huge fire
1882 illustration of the fire.