Copyright: Francis Frith Collection.

When the Palace transferred to Penge in 1854, Joseph Paxton was determined to make it an unrivalled attraction.

As part of this plan "dinosaur islands" were created in the park lakes upon which huge models of the long extinct creatures were constructed, many only recently discovered and of great topical interest.

Sculptured by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, models of extinct mammals as well as dinosaurs were included.