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The Festival of Britain in Northern Ireland
This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of The Festival of Britain. Held in 1951 the festival aimed to refocus national identity but also sought to introduce high modern ideas into architecture and design on a nation-wide scale. Joseph McBrinn recalls the events held in Northern Ireland which drew attention to the ‘positive relations’ between North Irish ‘Industry and Craftsmanship’.
Following the success of the imperial exhibitions in inter-war Britain a series of colonial exhibitions were planned for 1949 but were eventually ditched in favour of a great exhibition to be held in London in 1951.
This would, as the historian John MacKenzie has pointed out, not only ‘propagate the ideas of the post-War Labour Government’ but also allow ideas of Empire to be refocused on national imagery.
The very naming of the 1951 exhibition the Festival of Britain demonstrated a national rather than an imperial ideology. It was decided that in order to show how the nation had grown in the century since 1851, taking the Great Exhibition of that year as a point of departure, that as well as a major London exhibition, a series of provincial exhibitions were also to be held; principally in Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast.
The Festival of Britain celebrations in Northern Ireland were centred on two events: first a large exhibition of local, historical and regional industry, held at Castlereagh in east Belfast; and the decoration of two of the region’s most venerable buildings, Belfast City Hall and Derry Guildhall.
Published: Friday, 17th June 2011
Read more in: Arts & Cultural Development
