Provincial Posturing

There were some efforts to celebrate the Festival away from the South Bank.  Elsewhere in London there was the science exhibition in Kensington, and the architecture/town planning example at Lansbury (Poplar).  Themed exhibitions were set up in Glasgow and Belfast; while the Festival Ship, Campania, toured the coastline. A Festival Village was chosen.  This was Trowell, Nottinghamshire, an industrial D H Lawrence type of place now best known for its motorway services.  There was some controversy about this, as Trowell is not the typically pretty English village that people like to see on their biscuit tins.  However it was centrally located.

The inhabitants of Trowell celebrated with small events and the cleaning of the church clock. There is not a great deal left to remind inhabitants of this temporary glory – just a small obelisk.  The same could be said of the South Bank. Aside from the Festival Hall (which I presume many people don’t realise is named after this particular festival, if they think about the name at all) there just remains a commemorative circle on the floor where the Skylon hung.

Away from the officially sanctioned Festival exhibitions, towns and villages across Britain took matters into their own hands.  Again, it is not easy to pinpoint exactly what many of them did.  Trees were planted, cricket matches took place – the sort of thing that you have to know what to look for.   So I was delighted to spot this on a recent visit to Newark, Nottinghamshire. 

The park gates are dedicated to the Festival and this plaque remains to tell us all.  I suspect that the gates were going to be hung up anyway and that the council saw this as an opportunity to give their own nod to the Festival, supplemented by a bit of dressing up or something.  I can see this happening in many places.  Money was short and those in power were scared to be seen as frivolous.  At the same time, they wanted to get their bit of publicity and show the public that they did care about this kind of morale boosting.

There are little bits of Festival all over.  But you have to keep your eyes peeled. I go to Newark several times a year – and this is the first time I have ever noticed this plaque. Perhaps the only subtle thing about the whole event are its physical remains.