MANCHESTER is certainly giving a lead to other provincial centres. The city is sending no fewer than 10,000 of its children to London for two-day visits to see the Festival of Britain. The children come up in parties of 500 or so and spend the nights in the deep shelter…
Letter from J M. Butterfield
Sir, – Mr. Hartley suggests that as the citizens of Leeds are “paying the piper” they have every right to “called the tune.” Surely that is a very dubious statement to make about any of the arts. It is widely acknowledged that any increase in the appreciation of music in…
Letter from Harry Kirkby
Sir, – In this controversy about the Festival of British Music in Leeds, I do not think quite enough stress has been laid on the counter-attractions, which must affect an audience already limited by the programme appeal. The season of the year, holiday, ballet, opera and various other activities must…
Leeds has beaten Manchester
With one day still to go, the attendance at the Festival of Britain Travelling Exhibition on Woodhouse Moor, Leeds has exceeded the final Manchester attendance figure of 135,736. Yesterday’s attendance in Leeds of 4,011 brought the total to 137,967. The total attendance on the equivalent day at Manchester was 130,471.…
Dreaming of a spire: the Festival of Britain
Enoch Powell published two collections of poetry called The Wedding Gift and Dancer’s End. Potatoes and sweets were rationed. No country exported more cars: typical was the Austin Atlantic, an underpowered cargo-cult Alfa-Romeo copy aimed, not very accurately, at America. Steel was nationalised. And Diana Dors and Alastair Sim starred…
‘A tonic for the nation’
Herbert Morrison, a Labour MP and former leader of the London County Council, described it as “the British showing themselves to themselves, and to the world”. It was intended to mark the end of an era of shortages and rationing and display the mastery of industry and the benefits of…
Divers to search for missing Skylon
Visitors to the festival on London’s South Bank marvelled at the 300-metre high steel construction, which appeared to float above the ground. Built of steel and suspended on cables, it was one of the most striking features of the London skyline. However, Sir Winston Churchill balked at the cost of…
Unlike today, the 1951 Festival of Britain reflected a nation eager to look to the future
Presenting a snapshot of disgruntled young people in the mid-1950s, John Osborne called his greatest play Look Back in Anger. That has always struck me as the most un-British of titles. The British almost never look back in anger. Au contraire. We lead the world in the art of looking…
Festival of delight: Decades before the Dome fiasco and Olympics row, Britain showed how to celebrate this country with pride
Sixty years ago this week, workmen on the South Bank were putting the finishing touches to a public spectacle that became a symbol of the age. Conceived against a backdrop of war damage and economic austerity, the Festival of Britain lifted the spirits of a generation. Originally, it was supposed…
The Festival of Britain, 60 years on
Who could fail to be charmed by the legend of the migrating stone lions? How one couchant beast, with its imperturbable gravitas, a heraldic chunk of London itself, moved without lifting a paw, from the site on the south bank of the Thames being cleared for the Festival of Britain…