At the beginning of February, by chance, I ended up staying in London for about a week, and I took advantage of the opportunity to visit the dinosaur spots in the area. I'll report on this in two parts. First, let's start with the famous Crystal Palace dinosaurs made by Waterhouse Hawkins, which are perfectly suited to being called a "treasure house." For more on the Crystal Palace and Hawkins' dinosaurs, please see here.

Richard Owen - Wikipedia

Hawkins' Crystal Palace dinosaurs are famously the oldest full-scale reconstructions in the world, and even the horned Iguanodon has been added to the Favorite Collection's Oldies Series. There was no way I wasn't going to see them.
About 20 minutes by train from London, I got off at Crystal Palace Park Station, which still bears the name Crystal Palace. The Crystal Palace dinosaurs (though only three species of dinosaurs had been discovered at the time, the rest being marine reptiles, etc.) were quietly nestled in a corner of a pond in the adjacent park. The stone dinosaurs, bathed in the setting sun, were simply divine, and the weight of 150 years made me, without exaggeration, want to put my hands together in reverence. I hope the photos convey the atmosphere.

(1) Owen on the left, Hawkins on the right.

(2) A pair of horned Iguanodons

(3) Hylaeosaurus

(4) The famous Megalosaurus

(5) The Jurassic crocodile, Teleosaurus

(6) A rather slender Plesiosaurus

(7) The powerful Ichthyosaurus

(8) Labyrinthodon (Amphibian)

(9) A Dicynodon, somehow like a turtle

(10) Pterodactylus

(11) It's a Mosasaurus!

(12) Anoplotherium

(13) Palaeotherium

(14) Megatherium

(15) Megaloceros

Crystal Palace Map. The numbers on the map correspond to the photo numbers.

Next time, I'll report on the astonishing Marine Reptile Gallery at the Natural History Museum in London, a pilgrimage to the fossil shops of Lyme Regis, and more.