Editing Great Exhibition (section)

== Admission fees ==
[[File:Lane's_Telescopic_View_The_Ceremony_of_Her_Majesty_Opening_the_Great_Exhibition_Inside_view_grand_opening_by_Queen_Victoria.jpg|thumb|upright|Lane's Telescopic View The Ceremony of Her Majesty Opening the Great Exhibition Inside view grand opening by Queen Victoria]]

Admission prices to the Crystal Palace varied according to the date of visit, with ticket prices decreasing as the parliamentary season drew to an end and London traditionally emptied of wealthy individuals. Prices varied from two [[Guinea (coin)|guineas]] (£{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|2.15|1851|2015|r=-2}}}} in 2015){{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}} (three guineas for a man) for a season ticket, or £1 per day (for the first two days only), then reducing to five shillings per day (until 22 May).<ref name="leapman">{{cite book | title=The World for a Shilling | author=Leapman, Michael | year=2001 | pages=72}}</ref> The admission price was then further reduced to one shilling (£{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|0.05|1851|2015|r=0}}}} in 2015),{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}} per day—except on Fridays, when it was set at two shillings and six pence, and on Saturdays when it remained at five shillings.<ref name="leapman"/> The one-shilling ticket proved most successful among the industrial classes, with four and a half million shillings (£{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|225000|1851|2015|r=-6}}}} in 2015){{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}} being taken from attendees in this manner.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fashion-era.com/the_great_exhibition.htm#Entrance%20Costs%20To%20The%20Great%20Exhibition|title=Entrance Costs to the Great Exhibition|work=Fashion Era|access-date=3 February 2009}}</ref> Two thousand five hundred tickets were printed for the opening day, all of which were bought.<ref name="newth"/>

To attract future customers from the working classes, the newly expanding railways offered highly discounted tickets for people to travel from distant parts of the country, and special rates were offered to parties, often led by the local vicar. Those too poor to travel lined up by the rail tracks to watch the long trains of open carriages steaming past.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tomalin |first1=Claire |title=Thomas Hardy : the Time-Torn Man |date=2007 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-141-01741-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780141017419/page/37 37] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780141017419/page/37 }}</ref>