The Crystal Palace itself burned down in 1936, but the hill it stood on still carries its name, along with a park full of Victorian dinosaurs, a television mast you can see from half of London and the National Sports Centre, where generations of athletes have trained. Five boroughs meet up here, and the streets of the Triangle are packed with restaurants and bars. Minibus hire Crystal Palace customers book is mostly about sport, with athletics meets and swimming galas at the sports centre, match days at Selhurst Park, school trips to the park, concerts at the Bowl and runs to Gatwick.
Crystal Palace sits on a ridge at the meeting point of Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham, with Sydenham, Penge, Upper Norwood and Dulwich below it. From our base in SE1, it's about thirty-five to forty-five minutes outside the rush hour, via Camberwell and Dulwich.
Minibus hire Crystal Palace for the National Sports Centre
The National Sports Centre, in the middle of Crystal Palace Park, has an athletics stadium, a large indoor pool and diving area, and sports halls. Athletics clubs, swimming clubs, schools and county squads come for competitions, training camps and school sports days, and parts of the centre are being redeveloped in stages.
Clubs and schools book us to bring teams in from across London and the south-east. The whole squad, the coaches and the kit travel in one vehicle, and the driver waits for the end of the meet. For gala days, tell us the warm-up time as well as the start, because swimmers often need to be on poolside early. Minibus hire Crystal Palace clubs book for a full season of meets can follow a set pattern.
Palace match days
Crystal Palace FC play at Selhurst Park, a couple of miles south in South Norwood, and on match days the roads around the ground and Whitehorse Lane are closed or very busy. Supporters' groups, hospitality guests and junior clubs on a day out book us to get there and back.
We'll check the drop-off arrangements for minibuses on match day and set a meeting point a short walk from the ground for afterwards. Selhurst Park is in a tight residential area, so the meeting point is usually on a main road where the vehicle can wait. If you live near the ground and have an unrelated booking, tell us the date.
The park, the dinosaurs and school trips
Crystal Palace Park's dinosaurs, built in the 1850s, were the first life-size models of dinosaurs in the world, and they're now protected as listed structures. The park also has a maze, a farm, a boating lake and the remains of the palace terraces, and the subway under the Parade, with its vaulted brick ceiling, opens on set days.
Schools come for science and history trips, and nurseries and families come for the farm and the playground. The park has several entrances and car parks, so we'll agree which gate the group will use.
The Bowl and summer concerts
The Crystal Palace Bowl, a concert stage by the lake, has hosted open-air gigs for decades, and in recent summers big outdoor concerts have returned. On concert nights, roads around the park close or fill, and thousands of people leave at once.
For concert groups, we'll drop at the edge of the event area and agree a meeting point well away from the main exits for the return. Tell us the finish time, and we'll plan the pickup for a little after it.
The Triangle and nights out
The Triangle, formed by Westow Hill, Westow Street and Church Road, has independent restaurants, bars, pubs and vintage shops, and it's one of south London's best spots for a birthday dinner or a night out. Groups come in from across south London and Kent.
The streets of the Triangle are narrow, with buses and parked cars, so the driver will collect from a side road nearby. At the end of the night, give us the addresses and we'll plan the drop-offs, which can be spread across several boroughs from here.
Gatwick and the hill
Gatwick is about forty-five minutes to an hour from Crystal Palace outside the rush hour, via Croydon and the A23 and M23. Heathrow is about an hour or more, London City about forty minutes, and Stansted an hour and a quarter or more.
The roads up to Crystal Palace are some of the steepest in London, and Anerley Hill, Sydenham Hill and Gipsy Hill all have tight junctions at the top. The Parade and the roundabout at the top of Anerley Hill are busy with buses. Minibuses can handle the hills, but pickups on them are hard, so we'll agree points on the flatter streets at the top or the bottom.
For minibus hire in Crystal Palace, call 020 7183 0567.