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The Festival of Britain was held in the summer of 1951. The Festival was seen as an opportunity for Britain to show to the world what it had achieved in terms of industry, design and culture. The Festival of Britain was also seen as an opportunity for Britain to become more colourful after the drab years of rationing and austerity under Atlee’s government.
The suggestion for a festival was first made during the war years. After the war had finished, both in Europe and the Far East, Gerald Barry, editor of the ‘News Chronicle’, pushed Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade, to put his weight behind a festival that would liven up Britain. Barry pointed out that 1951 would be the hundred year anniversary of the Great Exhibition of Queen Victoria’s reign. The idea of a festival was taken up and it opened on the anniversary of the Great Exhibition.
The main centre for the Festival of Britain was on an exhibition site based on the south bank of the River Thames near Waterloo Station. The only surviving building now is the Royal Festival Hall but there were other temporary exhibition halls which were used. At Battersea, ‘Pleasure Gardens’ were built for the Festival – complete with funfair.
However, there were many more smaller exhibitions held around Britain and coastal areas could be visited by the ship "Campania"" which was the ‘Festival Ship’.
Over 8 million people visited the festival at the Thames site alone and the festival is generally credited with bringing lost glamour and fun back into Britain after the problems of the depression in the 1930’s and the war itself.
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