Originally, Norwood was a venue for days out at tea gardens and it was the site of Beulah Spa. By 1854, the re-erected Crystal Palace of Joseph Paxton towered over the Norwood area, making it fashionable, and large houses adorned the attractive upper slopes, whose residents were in their turn served by those who lived in the smaller houses further down. Yet by the 1930s Norwood was a place of unlet houses, its heyday gone. Norwood now provides a welcome respite for commuting Londoners.