The circuit first ran in 1927 as a 1-mile (1.6 km) course on existing park paths, with tarmac-covered bends and hard-packed gravel on the straights. A major expansion completed in December 1936 extended the layout to 2.000 miles (3.219 km) and surfaced the entire circuit in tarmac. The Royal Automobile Club staged the London Grand Prix here on 17 July 1937, won by Prince Bira in his ERA R2B Romulus at an average speed of 54.36 mph. Later that year, during the International Imperial Trophy meeting, the BBC produced the first ever televised motor racing broadcast from the circuit.
World War II brought racing to a halt when the Ministry of Defence commandeered the park. When competition resumed in 1953 the track had been shortened to 1.390 miles (2.237 km), bypassing the original loop around the park lake. Pressure from local residents had also secured an injunction limiting motorsport events to just five days per year.
Through the 1950s and 1960s the circuit hosted a diverse programme including sports cars, Formula Three, the London Trophy for Formula Two, and non-championship Formula One races. The tight park setting kept lap speeds moderate for much of this period.
Average speeds climbed steadily into the early 1970s. In 1970, that year's Formula One world champion Jochen Rindt became the first to average 100 mph (160 km/h) over a lap. The same year the residents' injunction expired, allowing racing to expand to 14 days annually. However, the 100 mph milestone also signalled the circuit's vulnerability. The broader sport's growing focus on driver safety made it increasingly clear that racing at such speeds on narrow park roads was untenable.
Expensive safety improvements were carried out, but they were insufficient to secure a long-term future. The last international meeting was held in May 1972, with Mike Hailwood setting the final lap record at an average speed of 103.39 mph (166.39 km/h). The circuit's final meeting was held on 23 September 1972, though club events continued until the permanent closure in 1974.
The 1937 International Imperial Trophy meeting holds particular historical weight as the occasion of the world's first televised motor racing, broadcast by the BBC.
Prince Bira's victory in the 1937 London Grand Prix was a prominent result for one of the era's most colourful drivers, a Thai prince who raced under the flag of Siam and became a familiar figure in British prewar racing.
Jochen Rindt's 100 mph average in 1970 was achieved just months before his death at Monza, after which he was posthumously awarded the Formula One World Championship — making his Crystal Palace record a poignant final marker of his brilliance on a venue that suited aggressive commitment.
The circuit's location within Greater London attracted film and television productions. The 1969 heist film The Italian Job filmed scenes on the start line and in the paddock, using Crystal Palace for the Mini Cooper testing sequence, with the Crystal Palace transmitter tower visible in the background. Ron Howard's 2013 film Rush also used the circuit to recreate a crash scene involving James Hunt.
The television series UFO used Crystal Palace for location shooting in the episode "The Responsibility Seat." The first known postwar motion picture to capture the circuit was Joseph Losey's 1957 film noir Time Without Pity, in which driver Leo McKern is seen lapping in a Mercedes 300 SL coupé.
In the virtual world the circuit lives on in the Grand Prix Legends simulation, where it was recreated in detail and subsequently converted for use in other racing titles including rFactor.
Crystal Palace remains significant as one of the few circuits ever operated within a major metropolitan park in the modern era. Its longevity from 1927 to 1974 spanned the entire sweep of British club and international motor racing from the prewar golden age through to the safety reforms of the early 1970s. The parkland setting that made it unique ultimately sealed its fate: the roads were never wide enough nor the surrounds forgiving enough to meet the standards required by mid-1970s safety thinking.
The roads of the former circuit remain largely intact today, used mainly for access to the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre and other park facilities. Sprint events have been held there periodically in the decades since closure, most recently in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the programme.