Crystal Palace Park: dinosaurs, concerts and the hidden Subway

Crystal Palace Park is the strangest large park in London, and the reason is that it is the leftovers of something much bigger. The Crystal Palace itself burned down in 1936. What remains is the landscaping, the terraces, and a set of Victorian oddities that nobody would build today.

The dinosaurs

Checked on the park’s own site on 9 September 2026. The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs were first unveiled in 1854 and are still there more than 170 years later. They predate the word dinosaur being properly understood, which is why several of them are gloriously, confidently wrong: the iguanodon with a horn on its nose that turned out to be a thumb spike, the crocodilian shapes, the whole thing modelled on guesswork by people doing their best in 1854.

They are free, they are outdoors, and they are the oldest dinosaur sculptures in the world. They sit around the lower lake and are best seen from the path on the far side, because several are on an island.

There is a dinosaur-themed playground in the park as well, built around the same idea, which makes this an unusually easy day out with children: the headline attraction and the place to let them run are the same trip.

London’s original outdoor concert venue

This is the part that gets forgotten. The park describes itself as London’s original outdoor concert venue, and it still books at that level. The 2026 season included Alanis Morissette, Kneecap, Snow Patrol, Grace Jones, Tom Jones, Nas and The Roots, Lenny Kravitz and Bastille.

The concert bowl sits in a natural amphitheatre, which is why the sound works. Gigs are summer season and ticketed separately from the park, which is free the rest of the time. Gigs in London covers the rooms and the door times, and what is on lists the checked ones.

The Subway, which almost nobody has seen

Underneath the park is a Victorian pedestrian subway built to bring railway passengers to the Palace, with fan-vaulted brickwork in red and cream that looks like the crypt of a cathedral. It was closed for decades and has been restored.

It opens on occasional open days, with free self-guided tours. It is not open every day and there is no point turning up hoping, so watch for the open day dates. It is the single most impressive thing in the park and the least known.

The museum

A small museum tells the story of both Crystal Palaces, the original in Hyde Park and the rebuilt one at Sydenham, through images, large scale models and displays of ceramics and other survivals. It is the context that makes the rest of the park legible, and it takes half an hour.

Making a day of it

The park is free and open, the dinosaurs and the terraces cost nothing, and the paid parts are the concerts and occasionally the museum. Crystal Palace station is on the doorstep from Victoria and London Bridge.

Free things to do in London covers the wider list, London walks covers the routes, and things to do in London with kids is where the dinosaurs earn their place.