The Crystal Palace Museum, which has been closed for the past year due to a fire, has confirmed its reopening date.
The museum, housed in one of the few surviving buildings from the magnificent Crystal Palace, tells the story of the famous glassy structure and its eventual demise in fire.
As a museum, it has nuggets like those that fill the displays, and you can learn an awful lot here. Candidly, if you’re really interested in the history, a book will serve you better, but maybe the displays will spark an interest. There are a few small displays of objects from the palace before it burnt down, and two large models of the building, with their tall water towers, and one showing the original long side arms which were removed before the rest was engulfed in flames. Much of the museum tells the story of the people and the wares that filled the palace before its 1936 fire.
Considering the history of the Crystal Palace, it is ironic that the museum had to close last year because of a fire of its own.
From a visit before the fire
It will have a reopening weekend on 6th-7th June from 10am to 4pm.
After that, it’ll be open every Friday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm – an improvement on pre-fire time when it was only open on Sundays.
It’s free to visit, with donations accepted. Note that the entrance is up a flight of steps.
The easiest way to find the museum is to arrive by train and, when leaving Crystal Palace station, turn left onto the main road and head up the hill. The museum entrance is signposted about halfway up the hill, and is next to the rest of the Crystal Palace’s open parkland.
The Museum was founded in 1990 and run by volunteers before it closed following a fire in 2025. The Museum is now under the custodianship of Crystal Palace Park Trust.
Looking to the future, they say they’ll work to secure funding to improve accessibility through building and infrastructure improvements, and to undertake a redisplay of the unique archive relating to this internationally significant heritage site.