Festival of Britain

, showing the tall Skylon and the Dome of Discovery The first idea for an exhibition in 1951 came from the Royal Society of Arts in 1943, which considered that an international exhibition should be held to commemorate the centenary of the 1851 Great Exhibition. In 1945, the government appointed a committee under Lord Ramsden to consider how exhibitions and fairs could promote exports. under the title "Festival of Britain 1951". Much of London lay in ruins, and models of redevelopment were 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. The Festival of Britain described itself as "one united act of national reassessment, and one corporate reaffirmation of faith in the nation's future." Associated with the Festival of Britain Office were the Arts Council of Great Britain, the Council of Industrial Design, the British Film Institute and the National Book League. In addition it sent four new RT buses on a promotional tour of Europe, covering and eight countries. The University of Brighton Design Archives have digitised many of the Design Council's files relating to the planning of the festival. ==Principal events==

England Exhibitions • South Bank, London (4 May – 30 September) • Science, South Kensington (4 May – 30 September) • Architecture, Poplar (3 May – 30 September) • Books, South Kensington (5 May – 30 September) • 1851 Centenary Exhibition, South Kensington (1 May – 11 October) • Festival of British Films, London (4 June – 17 June) Festival Pleasure Gardens, Battersea Park, London (3 May – 3 November) London Season of the Arts (3 May – 30 June) Arts Festivals • Stratford-upon-Avon (24 March – 27 October) • Bath (20 May – 2 June) • Bournemouth and Wessex (3 June – 17 June) • York (3 June – 17 June) • Aldeburgh (8 June – 17 June) • Norwich (18 June – 30 June) • Cheltenham (2 July – 14 July) • Oxford (2 July – 16 July) • Brighton (16 July – 25 August) • Canterbury (18 July – 10 August) • Liverpool (22 July – 12 August) • Cambridge (30 July – 18 August) • Worcester (2 September – 7 September) Wales Pageant of Wales, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff '''St Fagan's Folk Festival''', Cardiff Welsh Hillside Farm Scheme, Dolhendre Arts Festivals Scotland Exhibitions • Industrial Power, Glasgow • Contemporary Books, Glasgow • "Living Traditions" – Scottish Architecture and Crafts, Edinburgh • 18th Century Books, Edinburgh Arts Festivals Gathering of the Clans, Edinburgh Scots Poetry Competition Masque of St. Andrews, St. Andrews Northern Ireland Ulster Farm and Factory, Belfast Arts Festival Travelling exhibitions in festival dress Festival Ship Campania,: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland • Southampton (4 May – 14 May) • Dundee (18 May – 26 May) • Newcastle (30 May – 16 June) • Hull (20 June – 30 June) • Plymouth (5 July – 14 July) • Bristol (18 July – 28 July) • Cardiff (31 July – 11 August) • Belfast (15 August – 1 September) • Birkenhead (5 September – 14 September) • Glasgow (18 September – 6 October) Land Travelling Exhibition : England • Manchester (5 May – 26 May) • Leeds (23 June – 14 July) • Birmingham (4 August — 25 August) • Nottingham (15 September – 6 October) ==The South Bank Exhibition==

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. The layout of the South Bank site was intended 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. The architecture and display of the South Bank Exhibition were planned by the Festival Office's Exhibition Presentation Panel, whose members were: They included: • The Land. (Theme Convener. Penrose Angwin. Display Designers: Stefan Buzas and Ronald Sandiford.) • The Earth. (Theme Convener: Sonia Withers. Display Designer: Robert Gutman.) • Polar. (Theme Convener: Quinitin Riley and L. P. Macnair. Display Designer: Jock Kinneir.) • Sea. (Theme Conveners: C. Hamilton Ellis and Nigel Clayton. Display Designers: Austin Frazer and Ellis Miles.) • Sky. (Theme Convener: Arthur Garratt. Display Designer: Ronald Sandiford.) • Outer Space. (Theme Convener: Penrose Angwin. Display Designers: Austin Frazer and Eric Towell.) • The Living World. (Theme Convener: Kenneth Chapman. Display Designers: Austin Frazer and Stirling Craig.) • The Physical World. (Theme Conveners: Arthur Garratt and Jan Read. Display Designers: Ronald Ingles and Clifford Hatts.) Downstream Circuit: "The People" Architect: Hugh Casson Theme: M.Hartland Thomas Display Design: James Gardner The exhibits comprised: • The People of Britain. (Architect: H. T. Cadbury-Brown. Theme Convener: Jacquetta Hawkes. Display Design: James Gardner.) • The Lion and the Unicorn (Architects: R. D. Russell, Robert Goodden. Theme Conveners: Hubert Phillips and Peter Stucley. Display Designers: Robert Goodden, R. D. Russell and Richard Guyatt. Commentary: Laurie Lee.) • Homes and Gardens. (Architects: Bronek Katz and Reginald Vaughan. Theme Conveners: A.Hippisley Coxe and S. D. Cooke.) • The New Schools. (Architects: Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew. Theme Convener: B. W. Rowe. Display Designers: Nevile Conder and Patience Clifford.) • Health. (Theme Conveners: Sheldon Dudley and Nigel Clayton. Display Designer: Peter Ray.) • Sport. (Architects and Designers: Gordon Bowyer and Ursula Bowyer. Theme Convener: B. W. Rowe.) • Seaside. (Architects and Designers: Eric Brown and Peter Chamberlain. Theme Convener. A. Hippisley Coxe.) Other Downstream Displays • Television. (Architect and Designer: Wells Coates. Theme: Malcolm Baker Smith.) • Telecinema. (Architect: Wells Coates. Programme and Presentation: J. D. Ralph and R. J. Spottiswoode.) • The 1851 Centenary Pavilion. (Architect: Hugh Casson. Display Designer: James Gardner.) • Shot Tower. (Architecture and Design Treatment: Hugh Casson and James Gardner.) • Design Review. (Display Designers: Nevile Conder and Patience Clifford.) Other features of the South Bank Exhibition The Skylon An unusual cigar-shaped aluminium-clad steel tower supported by cables, the Skylon was the "Vertical Feature" that was an abiding symbol of the Festival of Britain. The base was nearly 15 metres (50 feet) from the ground, with the top nearly 90 metres (300 feet) high. The frame was clad in aluminium louvres lit from within at night. It was designed by Hidalgo Moya, Philip Powell and Felix Samuely, and fabricated by Painter Brothers of Hereford, England, between Westminster Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. It had a steel latticework frame, pointed at both ends and supported on cables slung between three steel beams. The partially constructed Skylon was rigged vertically, then grew taller in situ. The architects' design was made possible by the engineer Felix Samuely who, at the time, was a lecturer at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in Bedford Square, Bloomsbury. The Skylon was scrapped in 1952 on the orders of Winston Churchill, who saw it as a symbol of the preceding Labour government. It was demolished and sold for scrap after being toppled into the Thames. Royal Festival Hall Designed by Leslie Martin, Peter Moro and Robert Matthew from the LCC's Architects' Department and built by Holland, Hannen & Cubitts for London County Council. The foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Clement Attlee in 1949, on the site of the former Lion Brewery, built in 1837. Martin was 39 when he was appointed to lead the design team in late 1948. He designed the structure as an 'egg in a box', a term he used to describe the separation of the curved auditorium space from the surrounding building and the noise and vibration of the adjacent railway viaduct. Sir Thomas Beecham used similar imagery, calling the building a "giant chicken coop". The building was officially opened on 3 May 1951. The inaugural concerts were conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent and Sir Adrian Boult. In April 1988 it was designated a Grade I listed building, the first post-war building to become thus protected. Minor features • The Festival Administration Building, by Maxwell Fry, Jane Drew and Edward Mills. ==Festival Pleasure Gardens==

The Festival Pleasure Gardens were created to present a lighter side of the Festival of Britain. They were erected in Battersea Park, a few miles from the South Bank Exhibition. Attractions included: • An amusement park which would outlast the other entertainments. It included the Big Dipper and became the Battersea Fun Fair, staying open until the mid-1970s • A miniature railway designed by Rowland Emett. It ran for 500 yards along the south of the gardens with a station near the south east entrance and another (with snack bar) at the western end of the line • A "West End" Restaurant with a terrace overlooking the river and facing Cheyne Walk • Foaming Fountains, later restored • A wine garden surrounded by miniature pavilions • A wet weather pavilion with a stage facing two ways so that performances could take place in the open air. It had murals designed by the film set designer Ferdinand Bellan • An amphitheatre seating 1,250 people. The opening show featured the music hall star Lupino Lane and his company. It was later turned into a circus The majority of the buildings and pavilions on the site were designed by John Piper. There was also a whimsical Guinness Festival Clock resembling a three dimensional version of a cartoon drawing. The Pleasure Gardens received as many visitors as the South Bank Festival. They were managed by a specially-formed private company financed by loans from the Festival Office and the London County Council. ==Aspects of the Festival==

Architecture The Festival architects tried to show by the design and layout of the South Bank Festival what could be achieved by applying modern town planning ideas. The Festival Style, (also called "Contemporary") combining modernism with whimsy and Englishness, influenced architecture, interior design, product design and typography in the 1950s. William Feaver describes the Festival Style as "Braced legs, indoor plants, lily of the valley sprays of lightbulbs, aluminium lattices, Cotswold-type walling with picture windows, flying staircases, blond wood, the thorn, the spike, the molecule." The influence of the Festival Style was felt in the new towns, coffee bars and office blocks of the fifties. Harlow new town and the rebuilding of Coventry city centre are said to show the influence of the Festival Style "in their light structures, picturesque layout and incorporation of works of art", and Coventry Cathedral (1962), designed by Basil Spence, one of the Festival architects, was dubbed "The Festival of Britain at Prayer". There was an exhibition about building research, town planning and architecture, the "Live architecture" exhibit of buildings, open spaces and streets in the Lansbury Estate, Poplar (named after the former Labour Party leader George Lansbury. Plans for social housing in the area had commenced in 1943. By the end of the war nearly a quarter of the buildings in this part of East London had been destroyed or badly damaged. In 1948, the Architecture Council decided that the Poplar site would make a good exhibition partly because it was near to the other Festival exhibitions. Despite funding problems, work began in December 1949 and by May 1950 was well advanced. The wet winter of 1950–51 delayed work, but the first houses were completed and occupied by February 1951. The exhibition opened on 3 May 1951 along with the other Festival exhibitions. Visitors first went to the Building Research Pavilion, which displayed housing problems and their solutions, then to the Town Planning Pavilion, a large, red-and-white striped tent. The Town Planning Pavilion demonstrated the principles of town planning and the urgent need for new towns, including a mock up of an imaginary town called "Avoncaster". Subsequent local authorities concentrated on high-rise, high-density social housing rather than the Lansbury Estate model. The estate remains popular with residents. Young architects in 1951 are said to have despised the Festival of Britain for its architecture. "It was equated with the 'Contemporary Style', and an editorial on New Brutalism in Architectural Design in 1955 carried the epigraph, 'When I hear the word "Contemporary" I reach for my revolver.'" The idea of using the molecular patterns revealed in x-ray crystallography in surface patterns was first suggested by Dr Helen Megaw, a leading Cambridge University crystallographer. After hearing a presentation by Dorothy Hodgkin to the Society of Industrial Artists, Mark Hartland Thomas, chief industrial officer of the CoID, took up the idea and formed the Festival Pattern Group. Hartland Thomas was a member of the Festival of Britain Presentation Panel and was co-ordinating the CoID's stock list. He secured the Regatta Restaurant, one of the temporary restaurants on the South Bank, for an experiment in pattern design based on the crystal structure of haemoglobin, insulin, wareite, china clay, mica and other molecules, which were used for the surface patterns of the restaurant furnishings. The designs that were sponsored by the Festival Pattern Group chimed in with displays in the Dome of Discovery about the structure of matter and the Festival's emphasis on progress, science and technology. The Science Museum in London holds a collection of the Festival's fabrics donated by Dr Megaw; it also includes the official souvenir book by Mark Hartland Thomas. Lettering and type design featured prominently in the graphic style of the Festival and was overseen by a typography panel including the lettering historian Nicolete Gray. A typeface for the Festival, Festival Titling, was specially commissioned and designed by Philip Boydell. It was based on condensed sans-serif capitals and had a three-dimensional form making it suitable for use in exhibition display typography. It has been said to bear "a vague resemblance to bunting". The lettering on the Royal Festival Hall and the temporary Festival building on the South Bank was a bold, sloping slab serif letter form, determined by Gray and her colleagues, including Charles Hasler and Gordon Cullen, It has been described as a "turn to a jauntier and more decorative visual language" that was "part of a wider move towards the appreciation of vernacular arts and the peculiarities of English culture". The lettering in the Lion and Unicorn Pavilion was designed by John Brinkley. The graphic designer for the Festival was Abram Games, who created its emblem, the Festival Star. The arts The South Bank Exhibition showed the work of contemporary artists such as William Scott, including murals by Victor Pasmore, John Tunnard, Feliks Topolski, Barbara Jones, and John Piper and sculptures by Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Lynn Chadwick, Jacob Epstein and Reg Butler. • Aberdeen Festival 30 July – 13 August • Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts 8–17 June • Bath Assembly 20 May – 2 June • Belfast Festival of the Arts 7 May – 30 June • Bournemouth and Wessex Festival 13–17 June • Brighton Regency Festival 16 July – 25 August • Cambridge Festival 30 July – 18 August • Canterbury Festival 18 July – 10 August • Cheltenham Festival of British Contemporary Music 18 July – 10 August • Dumfries Festival of the Arts 24–30 June • Inverness 1951 Highland Festival 17–30 June • Liverpool Festival 22 July – 12 August • Llangollen International Eisteddfod 3–8 July • Llanrwst (Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales) 6–11 August • Norwich Festival 18–30 June • Oxford Festival 2–16 July • Perth Arts Festival 27 May – 16 June • Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare Festival) April – October • St David's Festival (Music and Worship) 10–13 July • Swansea Festival of Music 16–29 September • Worcester (Three Choirs Festival) 2–7 September • York Festival (including a revival of the York Mystery Plays) The London Season of the Arts comprised exhibitions specially arranged for the Festival of Britain. They included: • "An Exhibition of Sixty Large Paintings commissioned for the Festival of Britain" ("60 Paintings for '51"), Suffolk Galleries, organised by the Arts Council, prize awarded to William Gear; • Exhibitions of the works of Hogarth and Henry Moore, Tate Gallery; • Open-air International Exhibition of Sculpture, Battersea Park; • "Modern British Painting", New Burlington Gallery; • "An Exhibition of Exhibitions", Royal Society of the Arts. Barbara Jones and Tom Ingram organised "Black Eyes and Lemonade", an exhibition of British popular and traditional art, in association with the Society for Education in Art and the Arts Council. In the same year she surveyed the popular arts in her influential book, The Unsophisticated Arts, which included taxidermy, fairgrounds, canal boats, seaside, riverside, tattooing, the decoration of food, waxworks, toys, rustic work, shops, festivals and funerals. She said of the popular arts," some of it is made for themselves by people without professional training in the arts or in the appreciation of them, and some of it has been made for those people by professionals who work to their taste." The Festival was the occasion of the first performance of steelpan music in Britain by the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra. Film at the Telekinema on the South Bank in London during the Festival of Britain in 1951. The British Film Institute was asked by Herbert Morrison in 1948 to consider the contribution that film could make to the Festival. It set up a panel including Michael Balcon, Antony Asquith, John Grierson, Harry Watt and Arthur Elston, which became a committee of sponsorship and distribution. Over a dozen sponsored documentary films were made for the Festival, including • Air Parade, sponsored by the Shell Film Unit • Family Portrait, made by Humphrey Jennings • David, a short film based on the life of Welsh poet David Rees Griffiths (and in which he appeared), made by Wide Pictures and the Welsh Committee • Water of Time, made by International Realist films and sponsored by the Port of London Authority • Forward a Century, sponsored by the Petroleum Films Bureau. Several feature films were planned, but only one was completed in time, namely The Magic Box, a biopic concerning pioneer cinematographer William Friese-Greene, made by Festival Film Productions. There was a purpose-built film theatre on the South Bank, the Telecinema (sometimes called the "Telekinema"), designed by Wells Coates, which showed documentary and experimental film exploiting stereophony and stereoscopy and the new invention of television. It was one of the most popular attractions of the Festival, with 458,693 visitors. Science A new wing was built for the Science Museum to hold the Exhibition of Science. The first part of the exhibition showed the physical and chemical nature of matter and the behaviour of elements and molecules. The second part, "The Structure of Living Things", dealt with plants and animals. The third part, "Stop Press", showed some of the latest topics of research in science and their emergence from the ideas illustrated in the earlier sections of the exhibition. They included "the penetrating rays which reach us from outer space, what goes on in space and in the stars, and a range of subjects from the electronic brain to the processes and structures on which life is based." It has been claimed that "the Festival of Britain created a confusion at the heart of subsequent discussions amongst administrators and educationalists concerning the place science should have in British life and thought as a whole (particularly education), and its role in Britain’s post-war greatness." ==Other festival events==

There were hundreds of events associated with the Festival, some of which were: • The selection of Trowell, a Nottinghamshire village in the middle of England, as the Festival Village • The re-design of Parliament Square by George Grey Wornum in preparation for the Festival of Britain year • Commemorative postage stamps and many souvenirs, official and unofficial • A commemorative crown coin (presented with a certificate in either a red or green presentation box), The crown coin featured on its reverse the St. George and the Dragon design by Benedetto Pistrucci, best known for its place on British Sovereign coins. The certificate states "The first English Silver Crown piece was minted in 1551. Four hundred years later, on the occasion of the Festival of Britain, the Royal Mint has issued a Crown piece, bearing on its edge the Latin inscription MDCCCLI CIVIUM INDUSTRIA FLORET CIVITAS MCMLI-1951 By the industry of its people the State flourishes 1951". A non-circulating cupronickel coin, about 2 million were minted, most in "prooflike" condition. It remains very inexpensive • The restoration of Moot Hall, Elstow by Bedfordshire County Council • The first performance of Robert McLellan's play Mary Stewart at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre • The first performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams's opera ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' on 26 April 1951, at the Royal Opera House • An exhibition about Sherlock Holmes (part of which is now owned by Westminster Libraries and part by the Sherlock Holmes pub) • The William Shakespeare and The Merchant Venturer, two daily excursion trains run by the Western Region of British Railways from London to sites of British history, Stratford upon Avon and Bristol. The William Shakespeare proved to be financially unviable and only ran for the summer of the festival, but The Merchant Venturer remained in service until 1961 ==Attendance figures==

The Festival was highly popular in every part of Britain. Richard Weight estimates that of the national population of 49 million, about half participated. The Festival largely ignored foreign tourists, with most of the visitors from the Continent being expatriate Britons. There were over ten million paid admissions to the six main exhibitions over a period of five months: The most popular event was the centrepiece at South Bank Exhibition with almost 8.5 million visitors, over half of them from outside London. The Festival Pleasure Gardens had over 8 million visitors, three-quarters of them from London. The Festival Ship Campania, which docked in ten cities, was visited by almost 900,000 people. The Travelling Land Exhibition, which went to four English cities, attracted under half a million. The most specialised events, in terms of attracting few visitors, were the architecture exhibition in Poplar, with 87,000 visitors and the exhibition of books in South Kensington, with 63,000. ==Political responses==

The idea of holding the Festival became a party political issue. it became associated with the Labour Party, which had won the 1950 general election, and it was opposed by the Conservative Party. Hugh Casson said that, "Churchill, like the rest of the Tory Party, was against the Festival which they (quite rightly) believed was the advanced guard of socialism." Churchill referred to the forthcoming Festival of Britain as "three-dimensional Socialist propaganda." In an essay on the Festival, 17-year-old Michael Frayn characterised it as an enterprise of "the radical middle-classes, the do-gooders; the readers of the News Chronicle, The Guardian, and The Observer; the signers of petitions; the backbone of the B.B.C.," whom he called "Herbivores". In Frayn's view, "The Festival was the last, and virtually the posthumous, work of the Herbivore Britain of the BBC News, the Crown Film Unit, the sweet ration, the Ealing comedies, Uncle Mac, Sylvia Peters." In making the Festival the Herbivores "earned the contempt of the Carnivores – the readers of the Daily Express; the Evelyn Waughs; the cast of the Directory of Directors". Some prominent members of the Labour government considered the Festival to be a Labour undertaking which would contribute to their future electoral success, and Clement Attlee, the Labour leader, wrote to Morrison saying that an election in autumn 1951 would enable the Labour Party to benefit from its popularity. In the event, Labour lost the autumn election. ==Legacy==

The Guide Book to the Festival described its legacy in these words: "It will leave behind not just a record of what we have thought of ourselves in the year 1951 but, in a fair community founded where once there was a slum, in an avenue of trees or in some work of art, a reminder of what we have done to write this single, adventurous year into our national and local history." The Festival cost about £10.5 million (apart from the loans for the Festival Gardens), with revenues of about £2.5m. The net cost was £8 million (). In 1953 the Festival of Britain Office was abolished and its records were taken over by the Ministry of Works. As well as the material legacy, the Festival gave rise to new traditions, in particular the performances of medieval mystery plays in York and Chester. There was an explosion of interest in these plays, regular performance of which have continued in those cities ever since. In 2018 Prime Minister Theresa May announced that the government was planning a Festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to be held in 2022. The proposed festival, which was intended to unite the United Kingdom after Brexit, was widely criticised as it coincided with centenary of the Irish Civil War and risked inflaming tensions in Northern Ireland. ==Images of the Festival of Britain==

Several images of the South Bank Exhibition can be found on the internet, including many released by The National Archives on the 60th anniversary of the festival. A filmed retrospective of the South Bank Exhibition, Brief City (1952), with special reference to design and architecture, was made by Richard Massingham for The Observer newspaper. A film comedy, The Happy Family, was made about working-class resistance to the demolition that the festival required. The Festival is featured in the early portion of the film Prick up your Ears. The archive of the Design Council held at the University of Brighton Design Archives includes several hundred images of the festival. They can be searched via the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS). ==See also==