Words by John Jervis
For better or worse, the visual arts haven’t featured large in Britain’s national mythologies of late. Yet, in September 2018, Theresa May launched what is now known as Festival UK 2022, proclaiming: ‘Just as millions of Britons celebrated their nation’s great achievements in 1951, we want to showcase what makes our country great today.’ This ‘Festival of Brexit’ was met with scorn, hilarity and anger among artistic communities – followed, last year, by infighting and accusations of hypocrisy as groups from Assemble to the White Pube accepted the government’s shilling.
So far, so normal. More interesting is that May chose to leverage popular affection for the Festival of Britain in her flawed attempt to heal the wounds of Brexit. Why, 70 years on, does this one cultural event – first proposed in 1943 as a commemorative rehash of the Great Exhibition (with a not-dissimilar mix of industry and imperialism) – endure in the national imaginati
From the NS archive: Extreme environment 12 February 1965: Rooms floored with water are difficult to deal with at the best of times.
By Reyner Banham
In this piece from 1965, the architectural critic Reyner Banham considered the newly opened Hampstead Baths – at Swiss Cottage, north London – and the practical problems concerning the design of modern swimming pools. The baths, designed by Sir Basil Spence, Bonnington and Collins, were constructed between 1959 and 1964 and stood until 2002. Barnham noted that designing a structure that is to be filled with water heated above room temperature is difficult. He praised the architects for producing an atmosphere that did not leave spectators “uncomfortably sticky” and an acoustic environment that did not bear relation to “the kind of screaming snake-pit of echoes” in which he had learnt to swim in the Thirties. But condensation and damp abounded, not to mention the mud that covered the changing room floors. And with the de