The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs in London have been saved, thanks to a partnership between Bromley Council and Crystal Palace Park Trust.
Doctor Who fans may recognise one of them made a memorable if impromptu appearance on a cover of Doctor Who Magazine back when in 1990, when Sophie Aldred, known as companion Ace, cheekily scurried up one of them during a photo shoot by DWM designer Steve Cook.
As we previously reported back in 2020, the shoot was commissioned to highlight the debut of Ace in DWM fiction, in the text story, “Living in the Past“, written by Andy Lane – one of his first professionally published works – illustrated by Cam Smith.
In it, Ace saves the day on prehistoric Earth, riding a dinosaur, a story created with the help of “dinosaur consultant” Steve White – now well known for his incredible prehistoric animal art.
It wasn’t the first time a Doctor Who companion encountered the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. Back in the 1970s, Carol Ann Ford, who played the First Doctor’s grand-daughter Susan, dressed up in furs for a photo shot at the park, dinosaurs in the background, for a feature that ran in the Doctor Who Tenth Anniversary Special.
The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs have been carefully restored and painted in line with their original colours, so their appearance is as close as possible to what the public would have seen 172 years ago.
The 30 sculptures were the world’s first life-sized models of extinct creatures, intended to communicate ground-breaking fossil discoveries being made by palaeontologists of the time.
They were added to Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register in 2020 due to large cracks appearing in some of their bodies and limbs, putting them in danger of losing toes, teeth and tails.
Now their restoration, co-delivered by Bromley Council and Crystal Palace Park Trust as part of the wider regeneration of the park, means they are no longer at risk and can be removed from the Register.
The works were funded by the sale of land adjacent to the park for affordable housing and a £5 million grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Steve Cook, who now lives in California, is a British artist, photographer, and graphic designer, whose work can be seen on album sleeves, magazines, film, and comics, including, previously,work for 2000AD. His photographic projects have been exhibited in London and New York, and he has photographs in the collection of the University of the Arts London, where he was lecturer and practitioner in residence for 10 years.
In 2015 The National Portrait Gallery, London acquired four of Cook’s portraits for their permanent collection, and in 2023 The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery USA acquired three of Cook’s portraits for theirs.
• Find out more about the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs on the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs web site | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
• Sophie Aldred is online at sophiealdred.com
• Doctor Who: At Childhood’s End by Sophie Aldred is available now (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
Past, present and future collide as the Thirteenth Doctor meets classic Doctor Who companion Ace – in the first epic novel from the woman who played her, Sophie Aldred
• Photographer and Designer Steve Cook is online at www.steven-cook.com
• “Living in the Past”, first published in Doctor Who Magazine Issue 162 we reprinted in the Doctor Who collection Evening’s Empire
• Writer Andy Lane is online at slowdecay.co.uk/andrewlane
• Dinosaur Consultant Steve White is online at stevewhiteart.co.
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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