Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Quite heavy going this week, near as I can figure it, the answers are:

Q1. The Crystal Palace

Q2. Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins

(NB for question 1, this is sometimes referred to as just 'Crystal Palace')

The initial clues place us in the Sydenham area of London, the author is most likely describing the 'Paxton' tunnel, named after the designer of the Crystal Palace, Joseph Paxton. The Paxton tunnel served the now demolished Crystal Palace high level station (closed to the public in 1954), which was west of the 28 lock Croydon canal (completed 1809). The name 'The Crystal Palace', is thought to originate with Punch magazine.

The structure that the author is referring to is most likely to be the Crystal Palace TV transmitter antenna, ground height around 360 feet, height above sea level around 1027 ft. Walking north, north east from the masts takes you past the Crystal Palace caravan site and onto Westwood hill, where the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton once lived (at number 12). The "latitude of 88 degrees 23 minutes south in 1909" clue, refers to his Nimrod expedition. The cricketer with the significant statistics (if anyone on the planet actually understands cricket) was Dr William Gilbert Grace, who also lived in Sydenham for a time.


The artist born in 1807, is most likely to be Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, also a naturalist and sculptor, he created, with the assistance of a Sir Richard Owen, some full size dinosaurs for the great exhibition and the Crystal Palace site, some of them are still there today. It was rumoured that people actually had dinner inside of the Iguanadon there.