Festival of Britain 70th Anniversary: Battersea

To mark the 70th Anniversary of the Festival of Britain, Geoffrey Hollis will talk about the 1951 Battersea Pleasure Gardens – ‘Art and Elegance in Abundance’.

A roller coaster ride, with thrills, spills, emotion, drama, nail-biting tension – and that was before the gardens had even opened! Planned to be the light relief element of the 1951 Festival of Britain, Battersea Pleasure Gardens were totally different to the Southbank Exhibition both in ambience and content. Visitors were promised ‘Art and Elegance in Abundance’ including exotic settings planned by leading artists and architects, masses of entertainment, commercial sponsorship, nightly fireworks, and lots of things to buy. Despite a delay of nearly a month to the opening, there were over 8 million visitors that summer. This talk will describe the ideas and people behind the event, the challenges they faced, and what visitors experienced.

Geoffrey Hollis is an enthusiast for Modernism, with an active interest in the conservation of historic buildings, and is Clocks Advisor to the Diocese of St Albans.