Janice Andrews
19 Nov 2018
Britain in the late 1940s was a dreary country which was only slowly recovering from WWII. The winter of 1946/47 was severe, one million were unemployed, rationing was still in operation and there was a shortage of houses. Newspapers were restricted to their wartime size. Coal was scarce because it was exported to pay war debts. The top rate of tax was 19/6d in the £1. 40% of the population wanted to emigrate.
Gerald Berry of the News Chronicle suggested that the Centenary of the Great 1851 Exhibition should be celebrated. The Labour Government agreed and Herbert Morrison, the Home Secretary, said it would be ‘a tonic for the nation’. The Tories opposed the idea and Lord Beaverbrook called it ‘Morrison’s Folly’. Berry was appointed Director General of the project and was supported by the Arts Council, the Council of Industrial Design, the Film Institute and others. Misha Black, the designer, and Hugh Casson, the architect, were amongst those directing the plans. The cost was estimated at £11m (£308m today). Many sites were considered for the Festival, including Hyde Park and even the demolition of Wormwood Scrubs prison, but eventually 27 acres of wasteland adjacent to County Hall and Waterloo Station was chosen. This space proved to be too small, so a Pleasure Garden was added in Battersea Park (which continued to operate until the mid 1970s). Contractors were appointed and site work began in early 1950, but the 1950/51 winter was wet; there was a military style to management, and industrial relations were not good. It was a miracle that the Festival opened on time.
King George VI inaugurated the Festival at a service in St Paul’s Cathedral on Thursday 3 May. It was raining, as it was the following day when the South Bank site opened with 98 turnstiles and 1,200 loudspeakers. Entrance was 5 shillings, or 4s after noon; the average wage at the time was £10-10s (£6.65p today). Parliament had passed the Festival of Britain Sunday Opening Act which allowed the Exhibition to stay open seven days a week – a major change to Sundays on which, up until then, everything was closed. The Festival continued until September and proved to be very popular – indeed the closing speech was booed. Paid admissions at the South Bank site were over 8.5m (56% from outside London and 7.5% overseas), and 6m at the Pleasure Gardens. Once it ended, the Conservative Government pulled down everything except the Festival Hall.
The inaugural concert on 4 May in the Royal Festival Hall was entirely British music conducted by Sir Malcolm Serjeant. The VIPs invited did not include architects; indeed Hugh Casson found a fax terminating his contract when he returned home that night. The lift at the Hall got stuck with the VIPs inside it. Another musical feature of the Festival was the Trinidad Steel Band, the like of which had never before been seen in Britain. Noel Coward wrote a ditty ‘Don’t Make Fun of the Festival’ which was very popular: it contained the line ‘At least it’s warmer than your home’.
The Festival Symbol was designed by Abram Games (1914-96), a London graphic artist, who had designed many wartime posters, including ‘Grow Your Own Food’. He was paid 300 guineas, but not given the copyright. Many organisations throughout the UK, both commercial and voluntary, used the logo which had Britannia, a compass, flags and the year.
At the South Bank the Dome of Discovery showed the British initiatives in exploring not only the Earth, including polar regions and the sea, but also outer space. Adjacent pavilions displayed the Land (including transport), and Peoples of Britain (including new schools and sport). Other pavilions were devoted to television, cinema and the 1851 Exhibition. The nearby Shot Tower, dating from 1826, had a lighthouse mounted at its top which flashed until closing time each day, and could be seen for 45 milers. The Skylon, a vertical feature in steel and aluminium, was designed by Powell & Moya and was 300ft high. A brass citcle in the Thames Walkway marks its site today. Related exhibitions in London were Living Architecture (the Lansbury Project) in Poplar, Books in South Kensington and a special display at the Science Museum. There was a Travelling Exhibition, conveyed by 100 lorries, which visited Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Nottingham in turn. The Festival Ship ‘Campania’ took an exhibition to 10 UK ports between May and September.
Birmingham held a Festival Exhibition to which entry was 4s. It concentrated on manufacturing, but there were also a demonstration by the Women’s League of Health & Beauty. Marshall & Snelgrove produced a ribbon which was identical to one they had designed for the 1851 Exhibition. There was speedway racing, a horse parade and a Festival Pigeon Race. The Big Dipper from Sutton Coldfield was taken to the Pleasure Gardens in London, but the town never got it back.
Many memorabilia were produced with the Festival logo on magazines, crockery, blocks of soap, powder compacts, car badges, and even on drainpipes. There was a 5ft Skylon kit. A limited number of Festival biros were produced by that company, one of which was recently for sale on Ebay for £325. Oakley, and other villages in Bedfordshire, still have the Festival logo on their signboards. Ken Hewitt pointed out, and showed his own example, that the 1951 Crown coin produced by the Royal Mint surprisingly did not show the logo.