“His Royal Highness considered that such Collection and Exhibition should consist of the following divisions:
Raw Materials.
Machinery and Mechanical Inventions.
Manufactures.
Sculpture and Plastic Art generally.
“It was a matter of consideration whether such divisions should be made subjects of simultaneous exhibition, or to be taken separately. It was ultimately settled that, on the first occasion, at least, they should be simultaneous.
“Various sites were suggested as most suitable to the building, which it was settled must be, on the first occasion at least, a temporary one. The Government had offered the area of Somerset House; or, if that were unfit, a more suitable site on the property of the Crown. His Royal Highness pointed out the vacant ground in Hyde Park on the south side, parallel with, and between the Kensington drive and the ride commonly called Rotten Row, as affording advantages which few other places might be found to possess. Application for this site could be made to the Crown.”
Besides Somerset House, the Commissioners had to consider the merits of other sites proposed for the Exhibition, among which may be named Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, the Isle of Dogs, Battersea Fields, and Regent’s Park; but they selected, after the most careful consideration, that of Hyde Park, and the building occupied a site between the two roads, the eastern end of the building being exactly in the centre of the Knightsbridge Barracks, and its western end reached very nearly to Exhibition Road; and possession of this ground was given to the contractors on 30th July, 1850.
On January 3rd, 1850, a Royal Commission was appointed to carry out the proposed Exhibition, and the following were the members. The Prince Consort, Duke of Buccleugh, Earls of Rosse, Granville and Ellesmere, Lords Stanley and John Russell, Sir Robert Peel, Henry Labouchere, W. E. Gladstone, Sir A. Galloway (or the Chairman of the Court of Directors of the East India Company for the time being), Sir R. Westmacott, Sir Charles Lyell (or the President of the Geological Society for the time being), Charles L. Eastlake, Thomas F. Gibson, Richard Cobden, William Cubitt (or the President of the Institution of Civil Engineers for the time being), John Gott, Samuel Jones Loyd, P. Pusey and William Thompson. They were “to make full and diligent inquiry into the best mode by which the productions of our Colonies, and of foreign countries may be introduced into our Kingdom; as respects the most suitable site for the said Exhibition; the general conduct of the said Exhibition; and, also, the best mode of determining the prizes, and of securing the most impartial distribution of them.” John Scott Russell and Stafford Henry Northcote were appointed joint secretaries, and an executive committee was formed, consisting of Henry Cole, Charles Wentworth Dilke, George Drew, Francis Fuller, and Robert Stephenson, with Matthew Digby Wyatt as secretary.
The story of the building is succinctly told by Sir Henry Cole in his Introduction to the Official Catalogue. “The Committee ventured at once to recommend that upwards of 16 acres should be covered in; a bold step at that time (Feb. 21) when no data whatever of the space likely to be filled had been received. It was their opinion that it was desirable to obtain suggestions, by public competition, as to the general arrangements of the ground-plan of the building, and public invitations were accordingly issued.... In answer to the invitation to send in plans, upwards of 245 designs and specifications were submitted.... All these plans were publicly exhibited during a month, from the 10th of June, at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George Street, Westminster.... The Committee reported that, in their opinion, there was no ‘single plan so accordant with the peculiar objects in view, either in the principle, or detail of its arrangement, as to warrant them in recommending it for adoption.’
“They, therefore, submitted a plan of their own; and, assisted by Mr. Digby Wyatt, Mr. Charles Heard Wild, and Mr. Owen Jones, they prepared extensive working drawings, which were lithographed.... The Building Committee published in detail the reasons, both of economy and taste, which had induced them to prepare plans for a structure of brick, the principle feature of which was a dome two hundred feet in diameter. Public opinion did not coincide in the propriety of such a building, on such a site, and the residents in the neighbourhood raised especial objections. The subject was brought before both Houses of Parliament; and, in the House of Commons, on the 4th July, 1850, two divisions took place on the question, whether the proposed site should be used at all for any building for the Exhibition. In the one division the numbers in favour of the site were 166 to 47, and, in the second, 166 to 46. The Commissioners published at considerable length a statement of the reasons which had induced them to prefer the site, and there can be no doubt that the force of this document mainly influenced the large majority in both divisions.
“Whilst the plan of the Building Committee was under discussion, Mr. Paxton was led, by the hostility which it had incurred, to submit a plan for a structure chiefly of glass and iron, on principles similar to those which had been adopted and successfully tried by him at Chatsworth. Messrs. Fox, Henderson, and Company tendered for the erection of the Building Committee’s plan, and strictly in accordance with the conditions of tender: they also submitted estimates for the construction of the building suggested by Mr. Paxton, and adapted in form to the official ground-plan. An engraving of Mr. Paxton’s original design was published in the Illustrated London News, 6th July, 1850, which, when compared with the building that has actually been erected, will show what changes were subsequently made. The Commissioners having fully investigated the subject, finally adopted, on the 26th July, Messrs. Fox, Henderson and Company’s tender to construct Mr. Paxton’s building as then proposed, for the sum of £79,800.”
The first iron column was fixed as early as the 26th September, 1850, and the building was ready for opening on May 1st, 1851. It covered an area of 18 acres, was 1850 feet long, 408 feet wide, and 64 feet high, irrespective of the arched roof of the transept; and in order to put it familiarly before people, Mr. Fox, at a dinner given to him at Derby, June 28th, 1851, said, “I walked out one evening into Portland Place; and there, setting off the 1850 feet upon the pavement, found it the same length within a few yards; and then, considering that the building would be three times the width of that fine street, and the nave as high as the houses on either side, I had presented to my mind a pretty good idea of what we were about to undertake.”