1851-1951
"FESTIVAL YEARS" by W.H.Owens in "Austin Owner Magazine", first published in 1951.
W.H.Owens compares the Great Exhibition staged in the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, in 1851 with the Festival of Britain which is to be officially opened this month by His Majesty The King to commemorate the Centenary of the former event.
During the past 150 years, exhibitions of industrial skill and progress have been organised by most nations. The great 19th century exhibitions of Europe, though primarily industrial, drew attention to scientific and cultural advances in various countries, and often served some national purpose as well as fostering trade. At such events, many everyday "wonders" of our present age were foreshadowed - for example, the motor car and the possibilities of electric lighting and refrigeration at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.
But this year’s Festival of Britain has been conceived on a scale new and much wider than anything of the kind before. From May until the end of September, British achievement and the British way of life will be on view to the world in a festival in which every corner of the United Kingdom will play a part.
Besides the official exhibitions in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast, there will be a Land Travelling Exhibition, touring cities of the Midlands, and a Sea Travelling Exhibition, mounted on a converted aircraft carrier, which will visit seaport towns all round Britain’s coasts throughout the summer. Many historic centres are also staging local festivals of the arts.
The Festival commemorates, on a grand scale, the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park. Although the two events are widely different in scope and purpose, each represents a milestone of achievement in the modern history of this island.
In 1851 just a single building - though admittedly a vast building - housed the entire show. Nevertheless, the Great Exhibition was the most ambitious the world had seen up to that time, and it was also the first to be presented on an international scale with competitors from many lands outside Britain. Unlike so many other exhibitions before and since, it was a tremendous financial success.
The idea for the Great Exhibition was first suggested by the Prince Consort to a meeting of the Society of Arts in 1849. Early in the following year a Royal Commission was appointed and the scheme launched by the Lord Mayor of London at a Mansion House banquet.
At first it was planned to hold the Exhibition in historic Somerset House, off the Strand. But such a huge collection of exhibits was promised that it soon became obvious that London had no building which could display more than a fraction of them. So a second "palace" had to be erected, and Hyde Park was chosen for its setting.
More than two hundred and thirty designs were turned down by the Commissioners before Joseph Paxton, gardens superintendent to the Duke of Devonshire, submitted his plan for the Crystal Palace. The design for the famous "Palace of Glass" was bold and imaginative and immediately found favour. It was for an enormous conservatory of glass and iron, with great transepts so constructed as to contain some of the larger trees of Hyde Park.
Yet as soon as the Crystal Palace plans were made public, there was much indignation and even alarm. Critics predicted that the wind would blow it down and hailstones break the glass (of which there was some 900,000 square feet) or that the sun’s rays would generate a heat inside that no human being could stand. But none of these prophecies came true. The Crystal Palace became a wonder of the time and, after its dismantling and re-erection on Sydenham Hill, survived as a landmark and centre of multifarious activities until its destruction by fire in 1936.
From the brilliant opening by Queen Victoria on May 1st, 1851, success attended the Great Exhibition throughout its run. By the time it closed on October 15th, more than six million people had visited the Crystal Palace, and the receipts left a profit of more than £170,000.
For the Festival of Britain the main scene is the Exhibition on the South Bank of the Thames. This Exhibition- the Festival’s centrepiece - will be mainly concerned with British contributions to science, technology and industrial design. It will tell the story of Britain and its people in a series of pavilions devoted to various activities illustrative of British life - for example, exploration and discovery, industry, transport, rural life, the home, the sea and sport. Thus the background against which manufactured goods and scientific displays are to be shown will be the living, working world of today.
The most striking of the thirty or so buildings in the Exhibition is the Dome of Discovery, the largest Dome in the world, which is 365 feet in diameter and 97 feet high. Constructed in aluminium, it is as typical of the mid 20th century as the glass and iron Crystal Palace was of the 1850’s.
Within this remarkable structure, which is to contain three galleries at levels from 12 ft. to 35 ft above the ground, will be presented the story of British leadership in discovery and exploration. Side by side with the achievements of such explorers as Drake, Cook and Livingstone, will be shown the discoveries of great men of science like Newton, Darwin, Faraday, and Rutherford. Sections in the Dome displays will be devoted to such subjects as land, sea, and Polar exploration, inner space, outer space and the living world.
Another notable feature of the South Bank is the Shot Tower, a famous old London landmark that has been incorporated in the Exhibition. Visitors cannot climb the tower, but its summit will be used as a lighthouse and carries the aerial of a radio telescope. This 30 ft. "umbrella" aerial will be rotated by remote control from the Outer Space section in the Dome of Discovery. By means of this aerial, visitors to the Dome will see, and perhaps, hear radio waves from the sun, stars and even from meteors, and themselves transmit radio signals to the moon and observe their reflection back to earth again after a few seconds.
Apart from the exhibitions of books and science at South Kensington and a "Live Architecture" Exhibition built on a 30-acre site in the East End, one of London’s most popular attractions next summer will undoubtedly be the Festival Pleasure Gardens in Battersea Park. These will be linked with the South Bank by a frequent service of water-buses. Some thirty-seven of the park will contain facilities for entertainment and relaxation to suit almost anybody.
Among the unusual amusements promised is a walk in the tree branches, where fairyland effects will be produced by lighting and "squirrels" will be seen jumping from branch to branch!
But the most unique features of the whole Festival are surely the travelling Exhibitions, to which brief reference was made earlier. Both have the same theme as the central display on the South Bank and will carry the Exhibition to millions who will be unable to visit London.
The largest transportable covered exhibition ever built, the Land Travelling Exhibition will visit Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Nottingham between May and October. Altogether it will cover an area of 35,000 square feet, contain 5,000 exhibits, and will require a fleet of 100 trucks for its transport. Among the many displays being carried to the provinces is a history of public transport with models that include Britain’s largest airliner, the "Brabazon", and the famous "Rocket" locomotive of 1829.