B - The Festival of Britain Alphabet

 The Festival of Britain was a major post-war celebration of the country and a beacon of hope for a better and brighter future. The main site at the South Bank in London was opened on 4 May 1951. However towns, cities and villages across the United Kingdom were encouraged to put on their own celebrations. This blog celebrates the quirkiness of the Festival of Britain away from the main London venues. It is by no means comprehensive as it only draws from my collection of Festival of Britain memorabilia. Each week over the course of the main festival period I will attempt to go through the alphabet. If you want to find out more about the Festival of Britain you may like to become a member of the Festival of Britain Society www.fobsociety.co.uk.

B is for....

Barrow and District

A common idea in how to respond locally to the Festival of Britain was to publish a history of the area or simply a modern guide. Barrow, in the north-west of England and best known today for building nuclear submarines, chose to produce a 144 page illustrated history.

The foreward notes that the previous three histories of Barrow had been published in 1872, 1881 and 1891, which meant that this new book broke a 60 year drought.

The foreward ends with this paragraph - "May this study of the past help to mould a progressive future for our Town and tempt the reader to interest himself both in the glories of a byegone age and the enterprise of the future", words which reflect the positive and forward-looking message of the Festival of Britain as a whole.

Whilst places such as Barrow created whole new books to celebrate their area, other places simply published Festival of Britain versions of existing books.

So B is also for Bath, which published a history of the city.

As far as I can see, this attractive small hardback guide has no link or reference to the Festival of Britain, save for the following small notice:

Indeed the guide ends with reference to the Bath Plan Number Two of 1945. This is no criticism of the city as it would have made sense to re-publish an existing recent document.

Let's go back to the main theme of the 'A' post - guides of local activities especially put on for the Festival of Britain. B is therefore also for Bourne.

Festival week was from 8th to 14th July, followed by a United Service and parade on Sunday 15th.  The events are the usual range of exhibitions, sports, flower shows etc. The carnival dance of the final day featured Jimmy Carr & His Music, which I assume is not the same Jimmy as the present-day comedian.

Similar to Barrow, the introduction to the festival programme is very positive in its language, talking of "an affirmation of the faith in the future", and that "Bourne Festival Week will not only show the people to the people but will rejuvenate many of the old voluntary organisations of drama, music, horticulture, sports etc". It is so good to read this in a week of British local elections when the language has been anything but positive and forward looking.

The souvenir programme has many adverst from local traders, including this one from E. Pearce & Co Ltd. Time passes quickly indeed, but I wonder whether they would have imagined that their advert would be used in a piece on the Festival of Britain 75 years later. I also chose this advert as it refers to the Ingersoll watches with Festival emblem.

Our final B is for Browns, and their guide to the furniture chosen for the Festival of Britain show house.

The show house was in the Exhibition of Live Architecture in Lansbury, East London.  The leaflet illustrates four pieces of furniture, including the "beautifully confortable" Gazelle chair and the "easy elegance" of the Tecta chair.

The Tecta chair was priced at £9 and 16 shillings - a quick look on the web shows a similar original Tecta chair from the 1950s on sale for £286.

And so onwards to C...