thumb|250x250px|Garden Palace at the [[Sydney International Exhibition (1879)]]
The Garden Palace was a large, purpose-built exhibition building constructed to house the Sydney International Exhibition in 1879 in Sydney, Australia. In 1882 it was completely destroyed by fire.
It was designed by James Barnet and constructed by John Young, at a cost of £191,800 in only eight months. This was largely due to the importation from England of electric lighting, which enabled work to be carried out around the clock.
Following the exhibition, it was used by The Technological, Industrial and Sanitary Museum of New South Wales, now known as the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences or the Powerhouse Museum.
Description and history
thumb|An 1879 engraving
thumb|The palace in 1880
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. The successful contractor was John Young, a highly experienced building contractor who had worked on the Crystal Palace for The Great Exhibition of 1851 and locally on the General Post Office and Exhibition Building at Prince Alfred Park.thumb|Sydney's Garden Palace; an architectural drawing from the 1870s
alt=colour illustration from a newspaper of the Garden Palace building engulfed by a huge fire|thumb|Garden Palace fire, Illustrated Sydney News, 1882.
The dome was in diameter and in height. The building was over 244metres long and had a floor space of over 112,000metres with 4.5million feet of timber, 2.5million bricks and 243tons of galvanised corrugated iron. The building was similar in many respects to the later Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne. Sydney's first hydraulic lift, was contained in the north tower, enabling visitors to climb the tower.
A 1940s-era sunken garden and fountain featuring a statue of Cupid marks the former location of the Palace's dome. Few artefacts from the International Exhibition survived the fire. 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. A number of items are held by the State Library of NSW relating to The Garden Palace include a piece of glass melted by the fire, a handkerchief and a book, The Sydney Garden Palace : a patriotic and historical poem by Frederick Cumming.
Gallery
<gallery>
File:Garden Palace 1880 SLNSW FL1226255.jpg|The Garden Palace, Sydney, c. 1880
File:The Garden Palace (8005393869) (cropped).jpg|One of the towers
File:Garden Palace, Sydney International Exhibition Building (19927818715).jpg|The Garden Palace
File:The Garden Palace and Farm Cove SLNSW FL1229433.jpg|The Garden Palace and Farm Cove, Sydney, c. 1880
File:The Garden Palace- the North Nave (taken from the Dome) (4066791729).jpg|Statue of Queen Victoria, taken from under the dome
File:The Garden Palace- the North Nave (taken from the Orchestra) (4067542458).jpg|North Nave (taken from the Orchestra)
File:Garden Palace, Sydney International Exhibition Building, nave looking north (19739779048).jpg|North nave
File:Construction of the Garden Palace (8005394189).jpg|Construction of the dome
Garden Palace Fire 1882 SLNSW FL9581474.jpg|The Garden Palace in ruins after the fire, Macquarie Street entrance, 1882
File:The ruins of the Garden Palace (5010360636) (cropped).jpg|Ruins of the Garden Palace, 1882
</gallery>
See also
- List of destroyed heritage
- The Crystal Palace — exhibition building in London
- New York Crystal Palace
- Royal Exhibition Building — Melbourne's exhibition building