One of London's most famous lost landmarks will be restored this Christmas as part of a spectacular display of thousands of handmade Chinese lanterns.

Lightopia will be illuminating Crystal Palace Park in South East London throughout the Christmas and New Year period, with the center-piece of the display being a recreation of the famous building, built for the first world fair, the Great Exhibition of 1851, but destroyed by fire in 1936. Its memory has been kept alive in the name of the area, and its local English Premier League soccer team, on whose badge it still features.

In addition to returning to the capital for the second time, after a one-year absence last year, for the third year running there will be a Lightopia display in Manchester's Heaton Park, and also at a new venue, the Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire, one of the United Kingdom's biggest tourist attractions.