Crystal clear

I was fascinated by your July issue A Manns for All Seasons article, documenting the life and work of August Manns at Crystal Palace. My first visit to the site was one misty Sunday morning in November 1990 and I was astonished by its size – even the railway station was magnificent! I wondered what the acoustic was like with such a large building and so much glass in its construction – are there recordings of August Mann conducting his orchestra or of later recordings from the 1920s and 1930s? Perhaps it was the misty morning but the whole feeling was one of melancholy. But there was a better feeling when I stumbled across the prehistoric statues of dinosaurs – not music, but it gave the feeling of joyousness for the whole abandoned site. Henry Hambley, Skelmorlie