An illustrated tour of the Great Exhibition of 1851 - Part 2

Join Queen Victoria and Prince Albert for an illustrated tour of the Great Exhibition of 1851 led by historian, David De Haan.
Meet your guide at the main entrance to the revolutionary glass and iron of the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park and join him as he visits the exhibits.
Here you will see innovations and witness new technologies from Britain and the world beyond; see products and people from the other side of the globe; and glimpse famous faces including the Duke of Wellington and Charles Dickens.
Also watch Part 1
David De Haan tells the story of the idea of the Great Exhibition of 1851, explains how it was financed and the competition to design the building which housed it and the pivotal role of Prince Albert, in driving the project forward.

[@coyoteroadkill]

Nice tour! Felt like I was there...minus the heat, standing in line for the loo and people stepping on my toes.

[@geoffsullivan4063]

I used to live in anerley with my grandmother in the 1980teez Seymour villas to be precise and my friends grandmother worked as a maid for a big house in Farquhar Road when she was about 19 and I remember her telling me about the night the Crystal Palace burnt down and how she remembers walking up anerley hill at night (which is really rather quite steep) and seeing molton glass just pouring down the street in the curb like larva... Such a sad ending to such a wonderful era.

[@moogie3111]

Bet you'll get a lot more hits now that the PBS "Victoria" episode has touched on the Great Exhibition. Fascinating stuff. Makes me want to travel to London more than ever.

[@MrRobertbyers]

Excellent account and well presented. its fun and revealing of the times and Britains place then. Someone could make a great movie, even comedy, about this.

[@misternewoutlook5437]

Really great tour. A fine job and aethetically pleasing. The background crowd murmurs works better than a musical track by far. Thanks for that too.

[@colinmcivor8143]

If i had access to this when i was at school ( long time ago :) ) I would have loved history - all the little details really brought this to life. Even down to the different prices for the guides and giving the prices in todays money really really put it so well in context - also the little bits like Scheweppes, Thomas Cook etc - just brilliant

[@IanXD_TW]

Hi!

[@stephenspencer8938]

Brilliant many thanks for the tour!!

[@casplant]

Great videos! I am glad I found you back at the central fountain, as I lost you while staring at the Amazone...

[@camdenmcandrews]

That was a most excellent tour. I am wondering about saying that it was 'really hot.' The one document we saw listed temperatures in the 70's F, with only one spot reaching a high hourly reading of 80 F. That might be really hot by London standards but down here on the Texas gulf coast... well... A lot of engineering went into cooling the building, with louvered windows to direct heated air out the top and draw in cool air at the bottom, and evaporating water ran over the roof to draw off most of the heat. So, although the design was a greenhouse, it does not seem to have been a true hothouse.

[@liaspooked4980]

you have to remember that the victorian get up was very different from the one we wear nowadays. They wore a lot more layers of clothing, especially for such a luxurious occurance that was a visit to the great exhibition. Also, i think a factor that makes hot temperatures feel even hotter than they are is the lack of air circulation (which was the case in most spaces inside the Crystal Pallace)

[@magarkouyoumdjian9722]

Fantastic virtual tour of the great exhibition !

[@camt9967]

This is excellent. Thank you very much for your presentation.

[@TheVillaChronicler]

A marvellous experience, wonderfully narrated! And as a Brummie I'm proud that Birmingham and the West Midlands was so involved in the construction of the Crystal Palace.

[@danieldelarocha1731]

Such an imaginative way to present this. Thank you!

[@sybilsybil45]

Absolutely fascinating wish I could have visited, but now I feel I have...Thank You

[@113dmg9]

That tour was very nicely explained. I really enjoyed it.

[@lucebasseterre6693]

thanks, that absolutly fabulous !

[@VIKTORTRAPPSTEG]

This is so wonderful. I have always wanted a closer look at this remarkable exhibition and here it is and so well presented. And narrated. THANKS!

[@danischeel4846]

Very informative! I love this era. I think I should have been born back then. I like everything about it, architecture, fashion,etc.

[@Kynareth6]

92-93% of people in 1851 lived in extreme poverty. Today it's 7-8%. And noone forbids you to decorate your house in Victorian style or to wear Victorian style clothing (excluding swimming pools).

[@danischeel4846]

Only if I was the daughter of a rich industrialist, I guess lol

[@Kynareth6]

​@@danischeel4846 But I think that going to an international expo was a much more exciting trip in the XIX than in the XXI century. Now all you see are screens. Basically multiple TVs all around you and that's it. If you can afford flying to Dubai, you can afford a large TV. 1893 expo architecture was much more aesthetic than current post-modern expo which looks weird. I have no desire whatsoever to visit expo in Dubai, but in 1851 a farmer would be very very interested to see London's expo.

[@danischeel4846]

Well said!

[@liaspooked4980]

@@danischeel4846 unfortunatly, women back then had much less rights than they do nowadays. Even if you were the daughter of a rich industrialist, you would most probably not be allowed to have the same education as men did, and you would most definitely not be allowed to have the same opportunities in life. The first feminist movement was just starting around the time of the great exhibition, actually, but that meant there was still a loooooong way to go. While i do agree that the fashion and whole aesthetic of the victorian era was fabulous, i think its much better for us to just feel glad we were born in this century - one which allows most of us to dress in a victorian style AND vote simultaneously :)

[@californiaflatlander]

The BBC Victoria series initiated my interest in the Exhibition. Was it really organized and erected in only 9 months? That in itself is a colossal marvel !!!!

[@Gubalicious]

One of the best videos I've seen for a while. I always wondered what it was be like to be inside. This captures it perfectly. The Victorians really knew what would be good and impressive and they just built it.

[@IanXD_TW]

Hellio!

[@JTGould]

Bravo .... Well done sir!

[@borysandreyev9717]

Thank you, very much!

[@rare6499]

Brilliant!!!

[@littlemissmichele9254]

That's was fantastic. Is there one like this about the gardens of the crystal palace? Wow, i feel like I've just walked around the crystal palace. Thankyou.

[@buckledcranium]

Fantastic Videos - I had read somewhere there was a 24 ton lump of coal in the main entrance - was this later moved outside?

[@Understanding1]

Wonderful, i am going back in time. I tried to maker one too. 🧡🧡🧡

[@danischeel4846]

Mr.de Hann is there an illustrated book available on the great exhibition of 1851? This is so interesting to me that I want to know more.

[@I0goose0I]

The camera was around for almost 40 years by this time and how many photos from the time?

[@jayh9529]

Have you seen Jon Levi channel

[@hookedwitfilms9493]

Please can you tell me the source of the "Plan of the floor of the Great Exhibition" which appears at 01:34 into this video? I have tried searching for this document but have been unable to locate it.

[@taylorbeavers4301]

what types of stones were there and where?

[@Mfl.8580]

Si lo quisieran hacer ahora , tardarían unos 5 años

[@kidmohair8151]

Thank you for the tour through time and space! I am not surprised that China didn't actually send anything...a small thing called the Opium War...

[@lulu-ho9ow]

👍

[@jayh9529]

I live by where round oak steelworks was

[@stephenspencer8938]

'it wasn't foreign stained glass, it was from all different nations' what?

[@nuetangclan7339]

Not 1 construction photo

[@dognostix2628]

90 degrees Celsius? 😂 His-story b the funniest

[@nicolarivarossa4027]

yes you totally skipped italy and austria!!!!!

[@YTChiefCritic]

Trinidad and Tobago did NOT exist in 1851.

[@YTChiefCritic]

A lot of the history of the Crystal Palace is pure rubbish, beginning with Joseph Paxton the so-called 'gardener' who they claimed was an engineer and a director of the railway - a man who appears to have had NO education whatsoever, judging from the sketchy biographies of this character that are available. This advanced type of engineering cannot possibly be done by people without training in the field.