Festival of Britain.

The festival of Britain was held throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. It was to give the people of Britain a sense of unity and strength to help them recover from the aftermath of World war 1. It was a series of exhibitions promoting british technology, science, architecture and the arts. The main part of the festival took place in London on the south bank of the main london river the thames but there were also events in Poplar, South Kensington, Glasgow, Cardiff, Stratford-upon-Avon, Bath, Perth, Bournemouth, York, Aldeburgh, Inverness, Cheltenham, Oxford and many other cities and towns. In total there were 187 shows the official programme map with events and exhibitions around the country.

A view from across the thames of the festival of Britain's main event. 

The festival, organised by the labour government, aimed to celebrate the best of Britain and give people a real sense of national identity. It was an exiting thing to happen after the long boring years of the war and a good way to set people on the path to 're-building Britain', showcasing lots of design and architecture to inspire people.

Displayed in the main part of the festival was lots of modern, and modernism architecture which also helped the boom of artists working in this style, such as muller-brokmann, come to light in the years to follow, and is where lots of the inspiration of the new architecture that was see around our cities comes from today. 

Here is one of the images that was displayed at the modernistic section of the south bank exhibition. It is a bus shelter.

Henry Moore is another artists who's sculptures could be seen at the festival, based at the Tate gallery. In 48 Moore had won the International Sculpture Prize at the Venice Biennale which was a major achievement for him. His sculptures were seen as modern but also accessible which made him a leading role model for sculptures in the years to come. 

I couldn't find any imagery of Moore's work being showcased at the FoB but here is an example. As you can see it was around this time that things really started changing and becoming much more minimal and abstract and the FoB defiantly had a big part to play in that. 

Even the poster for the festival is pretty modern looking with a simple use of colours and some quite abstract and stylised shapes. Though a serifed typeface has still been chosen. 

The festival was something devised by the Labour Government and was associated with Clement Attlee, the prime minister at the time. When the Conservatives were elected and Winston Churchill came into power the exhibition at the south bank was soon demolished.