Built in 1991 to mark a natural amphitheatre that once played host to Pink Floyd, the Beach Boys and Bob Marley, it’s the focus of a spirited fundraising campaign, which hopes to spearhead restoration works.

Make your first stop at the dormant stage of the Crystal Palace Bowl, a great slab of angled corten steel known to locals as “the rusty laptop”. Home to two structures nominated for the RIBA Stirling Prize, it’s also a magnet for architecture enthusiasts. London’s green spaces are rightfully cherished – and Crystal Palace Park, in particular, has a lot to love. It may be missing its original landmark, but our tour of Crystal Palace proves it has plenty going on. Its Victorian history is reflected in the architectural stock, though there are modernist estates tucked away between the rows of period homes (as well as London’s steepest street). Today, this hilly south-east London community is at once suburban and creative, with a stronghold of independent shops, a large park and a family-friendly feel.

When the Crystal Palace was painstakingly rebuilt on a site at the summit of Sydenham Hill, it gave its name to a nearby neighbourhood, which remained so after the structure burned down in 1936. Playwright Douglas Jerrold was so struck by the edifice that he described it in the satirical magazine Punch as “a palace of very crystal” – and it was a moniker that captured the imagination of Victorian London.

Of all the curious names of the capital’s various corners – from Swiss Cottage to Elephant and Castle – perhaps none are as fascinating as Crystal Palace: a reference to the behemoth glass building that hosted the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in the middle of the 19th century.

Crossroads and the himalayan crystals