The Royal Commissioners appointed in 1850 to organize the Great Exhibition of 1851 are in a quandary.

An international competition for a building to house has produced two hundred and forty-five designs, of which only two are remotely suitable, and all will take too long to build and will be too permanent.

There is an outcry by the public and in Parliament against the desecration of Hyde Park.

English gardener and architect Joseph Paxton, who in 1837 had designed the Great Conservatory or Stove, a huge cast-iron heated glasshouse that is at this time the largest glass building in the world, is visiting London in his capacity as a director of the Midland Railway to meet the chairman John Ellis who was also a Member of Parliament.

He happens to mention an idea he has for the hall, and Eliis promptly encourages him to produce some plans, provided they can ready in nine days.

Unfortunately Paxton was committed for the next few days, but at a board meeting of the railway in Derby, it is said he appeared to be spending much of his time doodling on a sheet of blotting paper.

At the end of the meeting, he holds up his first sketch of the Crystal Palace, very much inspired by the Victoria Regia House.

The sketch is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

He completes the plans and presents them to the Commission, but there is opposition from some members, since another design is well into its planning stage.

Paxton decides to bypass the Commission and publishes the design in the Illustrated London News to universal acclaim.

Its novelty is its revolutionary modular, prefabricated design, and use of glass.