To some it is a pipe dream, but this is what a new Crystal Palace could look like as early as 2014.

Architect Ray Hall has released the first images of how he intends to build a replica Crystal Palace – and says he is “very confident” his plans will become a reality.

The £265m development would contain an Edwardian funfair, exhibition spaces, cinema screens, an entertainment area, and a hotel.

Mr Hall believes it would become one of the UK’s top tourist attractions, bringing millions of visitors through its doors each year and transforming the fortunes of the whole of Crystal Palace.

The head of New Crystal Palace Limited and Crystal Palace Chamber of Commerce said: “I have been working on this plan for 12 years, and I have never been more confident that a new Crystal Palace will be built.

“It has overwhelming support from the local community, the leader of Bromley Council has openly said he wants it and we have a developer who will pay for it. Everything is in place to make it happen.”

The building – which once up and running would provide 2,000 jobs - would be virtually identical to the original palace designed by architect Sir Joseph Paxton that was destroyed by fire in 1936, but it is also fronted by an eye-catching wall of water.

A percentage of its profits would go towards regenerating the rest of Crystal Palace park, making the park self-sustainable.

A barrier to Mr Hall’s dream is the London Development Agency (LDA)- which currently runs the park and has submitted its own £100m masterplan to transform the metropolitan space.

The LDA’s plans – set to be considered by a Bromley Council planning committee in December – would see the planting of 350 trees on the site where the new palace would stand.

However Mr Hall believes the council will reject the LDA application – which includes a museum - because it contains a controversial 180 home residential development on the current home of a caravan site in The Parade.

Mr Hall believes backers to his project could therefore submit an application next year, which if approved would see work commence on the site on November 30, 2011 – exactly 75 years after the original palace burnt to the ground - and up and running by 2014.

However the plans have not been accepted with open arms by the whole community.

Crystal Palace Community Association chairman, John Payne, said he would not support any plan to build on metropolitan land, especially an enormous hotel masquerading as a rebuilt palace.

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