Festival Of Britain 1951: The South Bank Exhibition

Quite often when digging through boxes of books, items which I was not expecting to come across surface, many of which are interesting enough to be added to my constantly expanding collection of 'stuff'. 

Certainly the guide book to the South Bank Exhibition, which was the centerpiece of the 1951 Festival of Britain,  made it onto a nearby shelf where it was left until recently when I decided a little bit of research was in order.

In truth I am somewhat more familiar with the Great Exhibition of 1851, and as the dates suggest one of the reasons behind the 1951 exhibition was to mark its centenary. However that contained far more in the way of global exhibits as it was staged during the height of the British Empire. The Festival of Britain had its focus firmly set on British achievements, which the guide describes as telling 'the story of British contributions to world civilisation in the arts of peace'.

The theme of the exhibition was driven in a large part by the idea of promoting the recovery of the country after the hardships suffered during the war and as such promoted everything from farming to technology. Even the site itself could be seen as a sign of recovery as the pavilions and other buildings were built on a 27 acre bombed out site, which had been left untouched since the war.

The site was separated into themes with the seven upstream pavilions promoting 'The Land', which included mechanised farming, present day industries and transport. The 'Dome of Discovery' concentrated on British exploration and discovery, with subject matter such as weather forecasting, polar exploration and astronomy.  Seven downstream pavilions were used as a circuit called 'The People', containing exhibits for homes, sport, health and the seaside, amongst others. 

The festival also included the 'Telecinema', a 400 seat cinema which showed British documentary films, the 'Shot Tower' and the Royal Festival Hall, which is the only building now remaining and will continue to as it is Grade 1 listed.

I am not going to run through all the facts and figures for the exhibition, but if you are interested the National Archive has some interest film coverage available on line.

One last thing I should mention is the vast amount of advertising in the guide book, always great fun to look at and interesting to see which companies still exist, I have put together a few examples below which hopefully you will enjoy.

Andy