Crystal Palace, London the grounds of the Penge Place estate at Sydenham Hill. The buildings housed the Crystal Palace School of Art, Science, and Literature and Crystal Palace School of Engineering. It attracted visitors for over seven decades. Sydenham Hill is one of the highest locations in London; 109 metres (357 ft) above sea level (spot height on Ordnance Survey Map); and the size of the Palace and prominence of the site made it easy to identify from much of London. This led to the residential area around the building becoming known as Crystal Palace instead of Sydenham Hill. The Palace was destroyed
Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 its chief administrator was Henry Cole. The current president is Anne, Princess Royal. The exhibition was a great popular and financial success, and made a huge surplus of £186,000 (approximately £22m in today's money). An unusual decision was made to maintain the Royal Commission as a permanent administrative body to use the profits for charitable purposes. Its revised Charter charged the Commission with "increasing the means of industrial education and extending the influence of science and art upon productive industry". The profit from the 1851 Exhibition was invested by The Commissioners who bought of land in South Kensington that was