It has been hard not to notice that this year is the anniversary of the 1951 Festival of Britain. This is not least due to the fact that last year’s controversial Wayne Hemingway Vintage at Goodwood is relocating to the Southbank this summer. Sadly the acronym VAS is not as entertaining as VAG. Some quality events have already been and gone, not least Ray Davies’ curatorship of this year’s Meltdown Festival. For those in London the Vintage at the Southbank thing does not represent fantastic value as most of the things on offer are readily available and the ticket cost is very steep. This is a shame in a way as the Festival of Britain could as easily have been called the Festival of London such is the affection it is held in by those who attended. My own family come from the Southwark/North Lambeth area and were therefore a short walk from the action and watched it being built. My mother recalls how much she enjoyed it, particularly the balconies that overhung the Thames and the Skylon. My own experience was of the much lamented Battersea funfair, built as part of the festival which I visited regularly as a child, once I won a day of free rides in an Evening Standard art competition, a prize somewhat lessened as I had to take my brother instead of my best friend Irene.
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| View of the Skylon. |
For those who want to learn more a walk around the rather meagre remains of the complex and a free exhibition; The Museum of 1951 in the Royal Festival Hall are cheap alternatives to formal ticketed events. The Royal Festival Hall is really the only thing left on the South Bank that retains the essence of the Festival. It is notably also the only attractive building in the Southbank complex. The Festivals sights and buildings being demolished and supposedly compensated for by ugly brutalist modernism as personified by the truly awful National Theatre complex erected next door. The current exhibition recalling the Festival, tucked away at the back of the Festival Hall is fascinating and gives an idea of the breadth and imagination of the event. There was a travelling version touring the country. A wide range of artists, craftsmen and politicians were involved. The Festival it produced was a dazzling piece of mid century imagination. Bright colours, flippancy and the use of new materials. A fizzing version of modernism, unlike the dirty totalitarian buildings to come. A stupid and unnecessary decision was made in destroying the site, the incoming Conservative government resented the Festival’s success and destroyed it. Something we learned from, the Millenial Eye and Dome were retained after 2000 despite the ropey nature of the millenial celebrations themselves, both at least visually have something of 1951 about them.
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| The Festival site. |
What was impressive was the cohesion of feeling. We are trying to organise another big festival in London but the Olympics is too fragmented, a hotch potch of ethnic doodads, gimmicks and reality show personages. The only thing it will have in common with the Festival of Britain is the presence of the Royal Family. The Festival of Britain was not insular, it was an impressively modern event with an internationalist view that did not rely on colonialism yet it was still distinctively British and dedicated to inclusion. All this is more remarkable in a nation just emerging from an appalling conflict and dealing with the daily grind of rationing and austerity. The fact that we no longer have the skylon, or the dome or the most remarkable riverside park is the result of the petty parochialism that we are still having to endure. Naturally the then conservative government managed to give a large amount of the land away to produce a large commercial office complex. You'd think that after all that bombing and suffering South London would have been allowed to retain a pleasure park. If I had my way I would demolish the National Theatre and Shell building and rebuild the Festival displays.
The exhibition contains some remarkable exhibits, my favourite is a quilt which details the remarkable elements of our history. There is a room set from the era which will have (some) of us cooing over furniture ‘just like our grans’ and part of it is open access so you can have your photograph taken relaxing or answering your period telephone, you can see Torquil doing just this below, doesn't he look comfortable? Maybe I should have a caption competition! What the exhibition did leave me with, as a Lambeth girl, is a resentment that it was all demolished and taken away, I suspect that as things are now we would not have the imagination and vision to hold something similar.
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| I'd like to order a pizza... |
If you are visiting the area don't forget to pop into Radio Days vintage store.
Recommended eats? The Thames Indian restaurant under the bridge is decent, and there is a branch of Canteen behind the Festival Hall. xxx
