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The Festival of Britain was a national of the River Thames near Waterloo Station . Other exhibitions were held in Poplar, East London (Architecture), South Kensington (Science) and the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow (Industrial Power) as well as Travelling Exhibitions that toured Britain by land and sea. At that time, shortly after the end of World War II , much of London was still in ruins and redevelopment was badly needed. The Festival was an attempt to give Britons a feeling of recovery and progress and to promote better-quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities following the war. The Festival also celebrated the centenary of the 1851 Great Exhibition . It was the brainchild of Gerald Reid Barry and the Labour Deputy Leader Herbert Morrison who described it as "a tonic for the nation". THE SOUTH BANK Construction of the South Bank site opened up a new public space, including a riverside walkway, where previously there had been warehouses and working-class housing. There was, however, opposition to the project from those who believed that the money ( £8 Million ) would have been better spent on housing. (An Ealing Studios film was made about working-class resistance to the demolition that the festival required and featured a London family barricading themselves into their terraced house to prevent it being demolished to make way for the Festival of Britain. The house is finally saved when red-faced Whitehall bureaucrats decide to feature it in the Festival as a “typical English home”). In 1948, the young Architect Hugh Casson , 38, was appointed director of architecture for the Festival and he broadmindedly sought to appoint other young architects to design its buildings. He was knighted in 1952 for his efforts in relation to the Festival. The layout of the South Bank site was intended by the organisers to showcase the principles of Urban Design that would feature in the post-war rebuilding of London and the creation of the New Town s. These included multiple levels of buildings, elevated walkways and avoidance of a street grid. Most of the South Bank buildings were International Modernist in style, little seen in Britain before the war. All except the Royal Festival Hall were later destroyed by the incoming Churchill government in 1953 , who thought them too 'socialist' for their taste. ''BBC Radio 4 programme, 8-9pm. 9th June 2007'' DESIGN AND THE FESTIVAL BUILDINGS The graphic designer for the Festival of Britain was Abram Games who had been Official War Poster artist and whose iconic Britannia symbol of the Festival remains memorable. The main South Bank site buildings and their architects were:
A public housing estate in Poplar , named the Lansbury Estate after George Lansbury , was also built as part of the festival, and is still extant. There is a church called Trinity Independent Chapel , a Public House named ''The Festive Briton'' (and now called ''Callaghans'') in a corner of Chrisp Street Market , also part of the estate, with ''The Festival Inn'' nearby. Also as part of the Festival in London, a new wing was built for the " – with attractions such as a Fountain Lake, a "Grotto", a "Tree Walk", and the ''Guinness Festival Clock'' – were constructed in Battersea Park . Parliament Square was redesigned as well. While not formally part of the Festival the architects of a new office building at 219 Oxford Street that was completed in 1951 incorporated carved stone plaques depicting festival scenes. These are from top to bottom, the Royal Festival Hall, Games' Festival of Britain Logo and the Dome of Discovery and the Skylon. EVENTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE FESTIVAL
IMAGES OF THE FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN Several images of the South Bank Exhibition can be found on the internet Designing Britain while a filmed retrospective view of the 1951 Festival of Britain on the South Bank, with special reference to design and architecture and entitled ''Brief City'' (1952), was made by Massingham Productions Ltd. for the British Government as a public information film. It can be also be seen at the Internet Archive [http://www.archive.org/details/brief_city_TNA ''Brief City''] The Festival was also filmed by documentary-maker Humphrey Jennings , as ''Family Portrait'' and it is featured in scenes in the feature films '' Prick Up Your Ears '' and '' 84 Charing Cross Road ''. LEGACY Although the Festival was extremely popular and made a profit, it was conceived and executed in haste and with little thought for subsequent use. The Labour Party , who had championed the Festival, lost power while it was open and Terence Conran has speculated that the haste with which the main site was cleared was an act of political revenge by the incoming Conservative Party government. Profits made from the Festival were retained by the Greater London Council and were used to convert the Royal Festival Hall and to establish The South Bank . Aside from this, the architectural legacy of the Festival is mixed: many architects, especially those working for local government, enthusiastically copied its forms and materials, but without too much consideration of their durability, resulting in a stock of buildings that have since been much criticised. The 221B Baker Street exhibit of Sherlock Holmes apartment is still displayed in a pub near Charing Cross Railway Station . Politically, the Festival of Britain has become a symbol for the incomplete promise of the immediate post-war period. The support of Peter Mandelson for the Millennium Dome project was perhaps an attempt by New Labour to engage with a similar symbolism, the promise of the new Millennium, as Mandelson is the grandson of Herbert Morrison . BOOKS
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