ON AUGUST 5th 1872 thousands of Londoners put on their Sunday best and boarded trains heading for the outskirts of the capital. Though the weather was cold and rainy, they were determined to enjoy themselves. It was, after all, only the second "August bank holiday" in British history: a Monday off work on full pay-an extremely unusual treat. Their destination was the Crystal Palace, the world's first theme park. The glass-and-iron structure, a colossal testimony to Victorian industrial might, overlooked fountains that were compared to those of Versailles. For a shilling a head (half price for children), visitors could expect the most diverse range of exotic thrills available in one place in one day anywhere in the country, including the first sculptures of dinosaurs.
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