"Along a lofty ridge in the south London suburbs, Crystal Palace Parade is a grandiose approach road for the Crystal Palace, the capital’s most cherished ghost. I can think of nowhere else where a vanished structure is quite so intensely and fondly remembered – but where else is quite so tangible, has such positive associations and is at the same time so patently banished from our lives?"

Tim Locke, hidden Europe, March 2008