The space used to hold The Crystal Palace, a large building made mostly out of glass. It was called The Great Exhibition of 1851 and used to be in Hyde Park, but the palace was moved to Crystal Palace in 1854. People went to it for over seven decades. Sydenham Hill, where the Crystal Palace was, is one of the highest locations in London and the size of the palace made it easy to see from Central London. This led to the area around the building becoming known as Crystal Palace instead of Sydenham Hill. The palace was destroyed by fire on the 30 November 1936 and the site of the building and its grounds are now known as Crystal Palace Park and include an olympic sized swimming pool.