- published: 23 Aug 2008
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The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote the British contribution to science, technology, industrial design, architecture and the arts. The Festival's centrepiece was in London on the South Bank of the Thames. There were events in Poplar (Architecture), Battersea (The Festival Pleasure Gardens), South Kensington (Science) and Glasgow (Industrial Power). Festival celebrations took place in Cardiff, Stratford-upon-Avon, Bath, Perth, Bournemouth, York, Aldeburgh, Inverness, Cheltenham, Oxford and elsewhere and there were touring exhibitions by land and sea. The Festival became associated with the post-war Labour government of Clement Attlee and was rapidly demolished by the incoming Conservative administration of Winston Churchill.
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. When the committee reported a year later, it was decided not to continue with the idea of an international exhibition because of its cost at a time when reconstruction was a high priority. The government decided instead to hold a series of displays about the arts, architecture, science, technology and industrial design, under the title "Festival of Britain 1951".
Festival of Britain in colour 1951 (HQ)
The Festival of Britain - London 1951 - Part 1
The Festival of Britain - London 1951 - Part 2
Festival Of Britain - Short Version (1951)
Festival of Britain
Festival of Britain 1951
DEMOLITION OF FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN
TASPO | Sterling Betancourt | The 1951 Festival of Britain
RETURN TO THE FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN - PART 1
French steam locomotive Bud at Bricklayers Arms London 1951 Beulah_Library_Roll_F9-10
FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN 2011: Clifford Hatts and the Dome of Discovery
The Festival of Britain
Acoustic Festival of Britain - Saturday (Part 1)
RETURN TO THE FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN - PART 2 - SKYLON REBORN