Event    From /5/1951  To /9/1951

Festival of Britain

'A tonic for the Nation', The Festival was intended to cheer us all up after WW2, and incidentally to celebrate the centenary of the 1851 Great Exhibition. The symbol for the Festival was designed by Abram Games.

All the Festival buildings on the south bank except the Royal Festival Hall have since been demolished and replaced by other buildings forming the much-loved (British irony) arts complex known as The South Bank. The Festival of Britain was a nationwide event with two other sites in London: the Pleasure Gardens in Battersea and the Live Architecture Exhibition in Poplar, originally 'Neighbourhood 9' but then renamed the 'Lansbury Estate', after George Lansbury. Diamond GeezerCaroline's Miscellany and A London Inheritance have all done good posts about this Estate. The City of London laid out a garden beside St Paul's, Festival Gardens.

The Festival Pleasure Gardens were installed in the northern part of Battersea Park. These included a water-garden and a tree-walk. There was also a fun fair on the section between Central Avenue and what is now the children's zoo. The BBC has photos of many of the items.

2019: Ian Visits spotted a Festival of Britain bench in an Essex village.

2019: In the 1957 film 'The Key Man' / 'Life at Stake' (not be be confused with the 1955 film with the same two titles), at about 57 mins, two characters meet in the Thameside Restaurant under Waterloo Bridge, left over from the Festival. This nice piece of modernist architecture remained until 1962.

2023: An email from 'Londonist: Time Machine' reminded us that the recreation of Sherlock Holmes’s study, now to be found upstairs at The Sherlock Holmes pub near Charing Cross, was created for the Festival of Britain. The catalogue of the "Exhibition on Sherlock Holmes" states that it was held at "Abbey House, Baker Street, London NW1, May - September 1951". Often described as Holmes's study, the recreated room is described in the catalogue as his living room.

2025: Ian Visits reported that the escalator at Alperton Station had been taken from the Dome of Discovery at the Festival of Britain.  It had fallen out of use in 1988, was subsequently decommissioned and is now set to be replaced with a lift.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Festival of Britain

Commemorated ati

Dome of Discovery

{The plaque is laid flat on the ground.} This commemorative plaque was set i...

Read More

Festival of Britain - Arts

The relief shows the Royal Festival Hall, surrounded by a violin, saxophone, ...

Read More

Festival of Britain - Churchill Gardens

See a similar plaque in N7 for information about them.

Read More

Festival of Britain - London Pride

London Pride. Frank Dobson CBE, RA. 1886 - 1963. Commissioned for The Festi...

Read More

Festival of Britain - N16

Festival of Britain, 1951, Award for Merit.

Read More

Show all 20

Other Subjects

Vanessa Bell

Vanessa Bell

Artist and interior designer, born Vanessa Stephen at 22 Hyde Park Gate, London. Sister of Virginia Woolf. She married Clive Bell in 1907 and their home in Gordon Square became the focus of what wa...

Person, Art, Craft / Design

1 memorial
Edward Ardizzone

Edward Ardizzone

Artist. Born Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone of French/Italian stock in Haiphong, Tonkin (modern day Vietnam) where his father was working at the time. He came to Britain in 1905, and eventually st...

Person, Art, Vietnam

1 memorial
Jill (Gillian) Greenwood

Jill (Gillian) Greenwood

March 2023: Susanna (Greenwood) Taylor contacted us to say that her mother painted the plaques for Julian Huxley and Maggie's Corner. "She was Huxley's cousin and her name was Jill (Gillian) Greenw...

Person, Art

2 memorials
James Barry

James Barry

Painter. Born in Water Lane, Blackpool, Cork, Ireland. He studied in Italy and in 1782 he was appointed Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy. Because of abusive remarks about his colleagues, ...

Person, Art, Ireland, Italy

1 memorial
Children of the Will Crooks Estate

Children of the Will Crooks Estate

Participants in the creation of the Will Crooks mural.

Group, Art

1 memorial