A second-half double from Luke Varney inflicted another dose of derby despair for Palace, as they lost to Charlton for the second time this season.
Varney's goals, coming after 59 and 87 minutes, condemned Neil Warnock's men to a loss that followed up the one-goal home defeat at Selhurst Park when the two teams met in September.
In truth, Palace could have no complaints as they were consistently made to look second best all evening.
The clear, mild conditions made for an ideal derby match, though there was less clarity when it came to attire, with Charlton's red shirts, white shorts and red and white socks against Palace's away strip of white shirts, red shorts and plain white socks making for a confusing contrast.
Warnock broke from his usual preference for stability in team selections and made three changes, handing a full debut to Neil Danns in midfield, deploying Danny Butterfield as left back and, most unsuspectingly, fielding fit again winger Paul Ifill.
As a result, Sean Scannell and Tom Soares were relegated to the bench, while Clint Hill sat out through injury. Centre back Jose Fonte returned to the dugout.
There was a healthy noise level in a packed Valley, as the 2500 Palace fans in the Jimmy Seed Stand more than held their own in term sof getting behind their team.
But, as often is the case with local tussles, the opening exchanges were hurried and rushed and the pace frenzied.
The first chance of the game fell to the home side after 13 minutes when debutant Greg Halford came sreaming at the back post and diverted a corner towards goal, but Julian Speroni made an excellent point-blank save to keep the right back at bay.
Alan Pardew's men began to take control of the game and were a whisker away from scoring five minutes later.
Again it was Halford who came close. He threw a dummy that eliminated Shaun Derry and struck inches wide of the far post.
Then, on 20 minutes, Speroni was again called into action, this time to deny Zheng Zi after he diverted to goal a low cross from the right. What made the save most impressive was that the Argentinian was off-balance with his momentum taking him to the right when the ball was struck to his left side, but he showed remarkable reactions to prevent the ball from finding the net.
There followed a ten-minute spell of welcome respite for Palace, in which time Warnock appeared to toy with replacing Ifill with Scannell, before the next wave of Athletic chances.
Kelly Youga's left wing cross into the danger zone could so easily have been converted, but home striker Andy Gray inexplicably failed to make a connection.
That let-off was nothing compared to what happened little over 40 seconds later. Luke Varney was allowed to run at goal and hammered against Speroni's near post. Fortunately for Palace, the ball rebounded to safety.
Palace could not continue riding their luck to this extent, and it was met with a sense of relief, as much anything, when Ben Watson picked up a rebound to swerve a 25-yarder wide on 35 minutes. The pot-shot was a clear distance away from the target but it meant the overworked Palace defence were given some much-needed respite.
The likely introduction of Scannell in place of Ifill in the first half finally materialised during the break, and the youngster had a few glimpses of goal early in the second period.
As well as making the change, it looked as if Warnock had been busy during the break motivating his players, who returned to action with a much sharper look to them.
On 53 minutes, Danns flipped from right to left foot, sized up the target and went for goal, but his effort lacked sufficent power to trouble Addicks stopper Nicky Weaver.
As if to underline the the improvement in Warnock's men, Danns, who had been anonymous in the first half, had another effort four minutes later. This time Weaver was slightly more stretched, diving to his left, but the end result was the same as the Addicks goal was not breached.
It was ironic, then, that Charlton took the lead during their leanest spell of the game. It was sourced from a debatable 59th-minute free kick given for a supposed foul by Lawrence, who was adjudged to have gone in to the back of Varney illegally.
That decision was made even more poignant when, from the resulting set play, Gray's flick-on fell invitingly for Varney to skip in and shoot into the near corner of Speroni's goal.
The sense of injustice was increased when a penalty shoot for an apparent handball in the home side's penalty area fell on deaf ears.
However, it took another impressive save from Speroni to prevent Palace doubling their lead on 62 minutes, thanks to a low stop from Gray's close-range effort.
With 14 minutes remaining Shefki Kuqi was brought on to replace Danns, before Warnock made his final change, replacing Clinton Morrison, who was making his 300th Palace appearance, with Dougie Freedman.
However, there was to be no recovery for Palace as Varney clinched the victory with his second goal of the game with three minutes remaining. Again it came through his probing down Palace's right hand side. Varney stole a march on John Halls, turned onto his right foot and fired towards the far post. Whether the ball was actually goalbound was debatable, but the shot struck the covering Mark Hudson who diverted it into the near post side of the goal-net.
Charlton: Weaver, Zhi, McCarthy, Holland (c), Gray (Iwelumo 84), Ambrose (Semedo 84), Varney (McLeod 90+4), Sam, Bougherra, Halford, Youga.
Subs not used: Basey, Elliot.
Goals: Varney (59, 87)
Palace: Speroni; Halls, Butterfield, Hudson (c), Lawrence; Derry, Watson, Danns (Kuqi 76); Ifill (Scannell 46), Scowcroft, Morrison (Freedman 80).
Subs not used: Soares, Fonte.
Attendance: 26,202.
Referee: Lee Probert. Assistant Referees: G. Stott, C. Sarginson. Fourth Official: M. Rusell.
