Crystal Palace Megalosaurus damaged

[DinoToyForum]

Topics merged. 

[Crackington]

Some good news from Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, they've managed to secure some funding from the government to repair the Megalosaurus. I hope you all don't mind me pasting their message in here (it's a bit long):

Dear Friends,

We have a wonderful development to share with you!

Since we last wrote, the specialist conservation team reported back to Historic England with their assessment of the damage on the Megalosaur.

We then learned of a grant opportunity from the government department DCMS. We were unable to apply for this grant ourselves, and we asked Bromley Council (who own the site) if they would. They agreed to do so, and our trustees made the decision to use your donations to 'match fund' their application, which also contributed funds.

As announced by DCMS this morning, Bromley's application was successful!

You can read the full statement on the DCMS website: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/lifeline-grants-for-culture-in-all-corners-of-the-country
"74 organisations are also receiving grants of up to £25,000 from the Covid-19 Emergency Heritage at Risk Response Fund, launched by Historic England and almost quadrupled thanks to the Culture Recovery Fund, to cover maintenance and repairs urgently needed on historic buildings and sites up and down the country. The unique Crystal Palace Dinosaurs which will benefit from £19,870 for repairs to these cherished local landmarks."
The work commissioned by Bromley will stabilise the head of the Megalosaur and put in place a temporary cover to protect from further damage.  Our understanding is that the work will be completed by April next year, and we have no further information on timelines.

We hope to use the attention this work attracts to gather resources for complete conservation works on the whole sculpture, and of course our main goal as a charity remains the conservation of all the sculptures and displays within the site.

We will be keeping you up to date through our website and social media channels, and hope to produce a small video sharing to the public the information we are sending to you. We would be grateful if you could share this with your own followers, and let them know that your donation helped us to secure this vital funding for the Megalosaur.

Once again, we extend our sincere thanks to you for your support. We are a tiny charity looking after the interests of some mighty beasts, and we could not have done this without your help.

All the best,

Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

[Faelrin]

Glad to see they will be able to get the funds they need to begin restoration work, and protecting it from further damage. This is good news. Thanks for sharing as well.

[Crackington]

I recently received a further update from the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs and they have made a nice video showing the work underway to repair the Megalosaurus:

https://youtu.be/o2u8YUwM9K8

Looking after the historic dinosaurs is clearly going to be a long term task, so please support them if you are able. Here's their main weblinks:

Website: http://www.cpdinosaurs.org   
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CPdinos/ 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cpdinosaurs 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cpdinosaurs/?hl=en 

[BlueKrono]

Thank goodness. One of Britain's greatest treasures for dinosaur fans.

[Crackington]

It is good news isn't it and highlights what this small group of volunteers is achieving 👍

It's not certain if it was vandalism that caused the damage though. Children had been photographed messing around on the statues near the time, but there did appear to be cracks on the Megalosaurus snout already. I did a quick Google search to see if anyone was prosecuted for this since, but it doesn't look like it.

Looking on the Friends site, they have also managed to get a new bridge to the island installed which will make it more secure. The Friends are also upping efforts to educate local people and give them a sense of pride in the dinos; this will be the best way to protect them long term:

https://youtu.be/mg5rv58o_yk

[Faelrin]

I'm so relieved they had those scans before the damaged occurred. I'm glad they are on the way to begin reconstructing it, aside from keeping it safe from further damage.

I saw they said this on their instagram regarding how it was damaged:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLWrUTxn2Wx/

the damage report revealed that neglect was the main cause, years of weather exposure and people climbing on the sculpture, rather than one individual. We are working on the issue of trespassing, and when full funding is available we can ensure that neglect is a thing of the past

I guess this makes sense too after seeing the video with the model that shows the cracking prior to the damage. It may have been just a matter of time unfortunately. Hopefully the others can also be looked at (such as the Iguanodon, etc) and protected from future damage, so they do not end up like their dear friend the Megalosaurus here.