Buxton Local History Society

“Blue Plaques.”

5. The L.N.W.R Fan Window.

Sir Joseph Paxton, 1803 – 1865. was originally a gardener who, coming to the attention of the Duke of Devonshire, was appointed head gardener at Chatsworth in 1826. He designed gardens, an arboretum, a huge conservatory, a lily house, the Emperor fountain, and rebuilt the village of Edensor, on the estate [1].
Paxton’s greatest achievement, for which he was knighted, was the glass and iron pavilion, based on his conservatory and lily house at Chatsworth, for the Great Exhibition of 1851. The structure was fabricated and erected in six months and later dismantled, removed, and rebuilt, in Sydenham, south London, giving rise to the name Crystal Palace for the area.

His achievements in Buxton, on behalf of the Duke, were on a far more modest scale. His 1852 design for The Park (Park Road) featured overlarge plots and had to be redesigned more modestly by Robert Ripon Duke before any meaningful building occurred. His concepts and influence are seen in the Pavilion, although the design, and of the gardens, was by his former pupil, Edward Milner. Paxton made a lot of money from speculation in railways and was a director of the Midland Railway, and a shareholder in the Stockport, Disley, and Whaley Bridge concern, to become the London & North Western Railway. With the backing of the Duke, he was able to get these two companies, approaching Buxton simultaneously from opposite directions, to agree a common design for the exterior of their stations, although the detail design work was by Edward Walter, the Midland Railway’s architect. The Midland Railway formerly opened their station on 30th May 1863 followed by a luncheon in the Assembly Room. The L.N.W.R opened theirs the same day with a luncheon at St. Ann’s Hotel, Paxton attended both [2].