Published:
May 1, 2021 at 7:59 am
In 1949, with much of Britain still showing the visible scars of the Second World War, and a decade of rationing and austerity, the Labour government, under Prime Minister Clement Attlee, decided that British spirits needed a boost. Their solution to the gloom of postwar Britain was a Festival of Britain – a national exhibition that would focus on the nation’s achievements in design, technology, industry, science and the arts, and promote a feeling of recovery.
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In just 22 months, with a budget of £12m – mostly funded by the government – an area on London’s South Bank was transformed into a huge exhibition space, crammed with examples of British innovation. Nearly 8.5 million people – of which half were from outside London ‑ visited the exhibition. Armed with festival maps and guides, they paid their 5 shilling entrance fee to enter the space-age Dome of Discovery – moving between themed pavilions (‘Power and Production’, ‘Homes and Gardens’, ‘Outer Space’ and more) – drank tea beneath garlands of patriotic bunting, donned goggles to watch new-fangled stereoscopic films in the Telecinema, and temporarily forgot the cares of everyday life.