Festival of Britain

The Festival of Britain emblem, designed by Abram Games, from the cover of the South Bank Exhibition Guide, 1951

The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition which opened in London and around Britain in May 1951. The principal exhibition site was on the south bank of the River Thames near Waterloo Station. Other exhibitions were held in Poplar, East London (Architecture), South Kensington (Science) and the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow (Industrial Power) as well as travelling exhibitions that toured Britain by land and sea.

At that time, shortly after the end of World War II, much of London was still in ruins and redevelopment was badly needed. The Festival was an attempt to give Britons a feeling of recovery and progress and to promote better-quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities following the war. The Festival also celebrated the centenary of the 1851 Great Exhibition. It was the brainchild of Gerald Reid Barry and the Labour Deputy Leader Herbert Morrison who described it as "a tonic for the nation".

South Bank

Construction of the South Bank site opened up a new public space, including a riverside walkway, where previously there had been warehouses and working-class housing. There was, however, opposition to the project from those who believed that the money (£8 million) would have been better spent on housing. (A marvellous Ealing Comediesfilm was made about working-class resistance to the demolition that the festival required: a London family barricade themselves into their terraced house to prevent it being demolished to make way for the 1951 Festival of Britain. The house is finally saved when red-faced Whitehall bureaucrats decide to feature it in the Festival as a “typical English home”. (Something similar seems to be happening with regard to the 2012 Olympics.)

In 1948, the young architect Hugh Casson, 38, was appointed director of architecture for the Festival and he broadmindedly sought to appoint other young architects to design its buildings. He was knighted in 1952 for his efforts in relation to the Festival.

The layout of the South Bank site was intended by the organisers to showcase the principles of urban design that would feature in the post-war rebuilding of London and the creation of the new towns. These included multiple levels of buildings, elevated walkways and avoidance of a street grid. Most of the South Bank buildings were International Modernist in style - little seen in Britain before the war. All except the Royal Festival Hall were later destroyed by the incoming Chruchill government in 1953, who thought them too 'socialist' for their taste. (BBC Radio 4 programme, 8-9pm. 9tgh June 2007)

There are several images of the South Bank Exhibition at Designing Britain.

Design and the Festival buildings

The graphic designer for the Festival of Britain was Abram Games who had been Official War Poster artist and whose iconic Britannia symbol of the Festival remains memorable.

The main South Bank site buildings and their architects were:

• Dome of Discovery, perhaps later the inspiration for the Millennium Dome (designed by Ralph Tubbs)
• Skylon, an unusual cigar-shaped aluminium-clad steel tower supported by cables (designed by Hidalgo Moya and Philip Powell).
• an ancient shot tower
• Transport, designed by Arcon
• Festival Administration Building, by Maxwell Fry, Jane Drew and Edward Mills
• * the Lion and the Unicorn pavilion celebrating the history of the British nation (designed by R.D. Russell and [[R.Y. Gooden}})
• Land of Britain, by H.T. Cadbury Brown
• Minerals of the Land, by the Architects Co-Partnership
• Power & Production, by George Grenfell Baines and Felix Samuely
• Sea and Ships, by Basil Spence
• the Royal Festival Hall
• a mural painted by the British Modernist artist John Tunnard
• a mosaic designed by Victor Passmore
• sculptures by Barbara Hepworth.

A public housing estate in Poplar, named the Lansbury Estate after George Lansbury, was also built as part of the festival, and is still extant. There is a church called Trinity Independent Chapel, a public house named The Festive Briton (and now called Callaghans) in a corner of Chrisp Street Market, also part of the estate, with The Festival Inn nearby.

Also as part of the Festival in London, a new wing was built for the Science Museum, to hold the Exhibition of Science, and a so-called FunFair (actually an amusement park) and "Pleasure Gardens" – with attractions such as a Fountain Lake, a "Grotto", a "Tree Walk", and the Guinness Festival Clock – were constructed in Battersea Park. Parliament Square was redesigned as well.

Events

Stamps commemorating the Festival of Britain - note the Festival icon on the 4d issue

The Festival was the first time that steelpan music had been played in Britain, thanks to the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra. An exhibition of sculptures organised by the Arts Council in Battersea Park brought Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth to wider public notice. There were two exhibitions at the Whitechapel Art Gallery as part of the Festival Programme: a display on the History of East London and a show of craft and popular art forms.

Legacy

Although the Festival was extremely popular and made a profit, it was conceived and executed in haste and with little thought for subsequent use. The Labour Party, who had championed the Festival, lost power while it was open and Terence Conran has speculated that the haste with which the main site was cleared was an act of political revenge by the incoming Conservative Party government. Profits made from the Festival were retained by the Greater London Council and were used to convert the Royal Festival Hall and to establish The South Bank. Aside from this, the architectural legacy of the Festival is mixed: many architects, especially those working for Local Government, enthusiastically copied its forms and materials, but without too much consideration of their durability, resulting in a stock of buildings that have since been much criticised.

Politically, the Festival of Britain has become a symbol for the incomplete promise of the immediate post-war period. The support of Peter Mandelson for the Millennium Dome project was perhaps an attempt by New Labour to engage with a similar symbolism, the promise of the new Millennium, as Mandelson is the grandson of Herbert Morrison.

Representation

The Festival was filmed by documentary-maker Humphrey Jennings, as Family Portrait. The Festival is featured in scenes in the feature-film Prick Up Your Ears.

Books

• Mary Banham and Bevis Hillier, A Tonic to the Nation: The Festival of Britain 1951, Thames & Hudson, 1976

See also

• World's fair
• List of world's fairs
• UK topics
• Lansbury Estate — East End show-piece housing associated with the Festival of Britain

External links

• The Festival of Britain
• Festival of Britain exhibit from the Museum of London
• The Festival of Britain Society
• The Festival of Britain - Exploring 20th century London
• http://www.flickr.com/groups/southbankcentre/ (A Flickr group dedicated to pictures of the Southbank Centre)