Festival of Britain

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

The idea of a Festival to commemorate the centenary of The Great Exhibition of 1851 first appeared in 1943 when Gerald Barry, the editor of the News Chronicle, wrote an open letter addressed to Sir Stafford Cripps, the president of the Board of Trade. Barry wanted to progress his idea of a cultural exhibition to promote Britain's design and manufacturing skill in the immediate post war era. It was completely dismateled when Winston Churchill and the Conservative party won the elections in 1951.

The official opening of the national exhibition was the 3rd of May 1951 and the principal site was the South Bank in London, an area that was badly damaged during the blitz.



Key buildings:

The largest project on site was The Dome of Discovery, a temporary building designed by Ralph Tubbs; made of concrete, steel and aluminium, it was also the largest aluminum structure in existece at that time and the largest dome in the world.





The Skylon was the “Vertical Feature”, symbol of the Festival of Britain. a futuristic-looking, slender, vertical, cigar-shaped steel structure located by the Thames in London, that apparently floated above the ground. It was designed by Hidalgo Moya, Philip Powell and Felix Samuely, and fabricated by Painter Brothers of Hereford, England, on London's South Bank between Westminster Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. The structure was dismanteled 1952, toppled into the Thames, cut into pieces and turned into ashtrays.




The Royal festival Hall designed by Holland, Hannen & Cubitts for London County Council was opened in 1951 and it is the only building from the Festival of Britain that survives. Today is one of the world’s leading performance venues.





(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festival_of_Britain, last accessed 18/10/10)
(http://whitstablepier.com/fob/index.html, last accessed 18/10/10)