London’s secret park with 180 year old dinosaurs

London attracts 30 million tourists a year. We look through some of the most iconic sites, but explore one park way off the beaten track.

Transcript

00:00London attracts around 30 million tourists each year and the capital is

00:05full of hotspots. The iconic bucket list sites include places such as a Big Ben

00:11at Westminster, the clock of the city and the famous London Eye, a giant wheel

00:16that has recently had its length of stay in the capital extended. In fact the

00:21River Thames is home to a lot of the sites, Madame Tussauds that sits along

00:26the South Bank, Borough Market, London's most iconic food market, the Tower of

00:31London and Tower Bridge all sit along this iconic river. Most tourists visiting

00:38the city could tick all of these off in a day but what about tourists that want

00:43something a bit different and go off the beaten track? Well today I'm in South

00:48London in Crystal Palace Park, a hidden gem and definitely one for families. In

00:53Crystal Palace Park visitors can see dinosaurs, that's right young Londoners

00:59come from all over the capital to visit these huge dinosaurs in the middle of

01:03the park. But there's a twist, the dinosaurs here are not quite right. The

01:0930 plus grade one listed sculptures that make up the Crystal Palace dinosaurs are

01:14absolutely vital objects in the history of science. They were the first ever

01:19attempt to model full-scale replicas of extinct animals and that's why the

01:24dinosaurs today aren't fully accurate. The sculptures are based on what

01:28paleontologists thought dinosaurs looked like at the time during the 19th century.

01:33This part of the park was constructed during 1853 when Crystal Palace was

01:39moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham Hill in 1851. I used to live in Crystal Palace

01:45quite a long time ago and I used to go to the park a lot and the dinosaurs

01:59they make it interesting but generally it's a very nice park you know and

02:06it makes Crystal Palace a nice place to live. And the dinosaurs themselves,

02:12the reason why it's become quite popular is because they don't actually

02:16look quite right. Have you noticed? Yes they are a little bit weird but I don't

02:21think that is the main attraction. I don't know, they are the dinosaurs but

02:24it's the water, the lake what is around there and it's quite beautiful. These

02:29days part of the attraction is to see the inaccurately made old rulers of the

02:34earth. They were in fact pioneering when first made in the 19th century. Obviously

02:41being in a park, visiting the dinosaurs here in Crystal Palace is completely

02:45free for everyone and was recently listed as the second best thing to do in

02:50London south of the River Thames by Time Out. For more hidden gems like this head

02:56to Londonworld.com