All That Glitters

The Illustrated London News from May 12 1951 dedicates most of its pages to the festival.  It is full of photographs from the opening ceremony and Royal visit, among write ups and opinions. There are the adverts too, as fascinating and informative as those found in the official guide book.   The centre spread is, predictably, a bird’s eye view drawing of the South Bank with a key to all of the attractions.  However, my eye was drawn to the pages immediately following this.  First, we have a piece of artwork by Bryan de Grineau which depicts the site at night.  The Thames reflects a glowing Skylon; light pierces the dusk from the Shot Tower; the Festival Hall is luminous pink and the dome looks like a flying saucer.  It is primarily a study of light.  This is followed by two pages which could have been the centrespread instead of the site plan.  This is a series of night time photographs. Along the bottom of the page is written

“London’s Nightly Festival Beauty: The Thames as a river of light between floodlit familiar buildings and South Bank Exhibition Pavilions.”

The blurb tells us that the “glittering panorama fascinates” and it seems that people turned out just to see the lights.

It is difficult to imagine a 21^st Century audience being so fascinated by lighting.  We have so many lights now that we are beginning to campaign against them.  We want to see the sky again.  But back in 1951, people had just spent 6 years staring at a sky laden with terror.  It was time to be dazzled again.

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