Festival of Britain - Legacy

Legacy

The Guide Book to the Festival described its legacy in these words: "It will leave behind not just a record of what we have thought of ourselves in the year 1951 but, in a fair community founded where once there was a slum, in an avenue of trees or in some work of art, a reminder of what we have done to write this single, adventurous year into our national and local history."

As the Festival was conceived, the government and the London County Council were at the same time developing plans for the redevelopment of the South Bank, which was to include "a number of great buildings, which will form part of a co-ordinated design." The first of these was the Royal Festival Hall. The Festival hastened the reclamation of four and a half acres of land from the river, which "transformed the familiar patchwork of rubble and half-derelict buildings which had for so long monopolised the propect from the North Bank". The Festival site was, over the following thirty years, developed into the South Bank Centre, an arts complex comprising the Royal Festival Hall, the National Film Theatre, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room and the National Theatre.

A 1951 office building at 219 Oxford Street, London, designed by Ronald Ward and Partners (now a Grade II* listed building), incorporates images of the Festival on its facade.

The Festival cost about £10.5 million, (apart from the loans for the Festival Gardens) with revenues of about £2.5m. The £8 million net cost is about £35 million at 2010 prices.

In 1953 the Festival of Britain Office was abolished and its records were taken over by the Ministry of Works.

As well as the material legacy, the Festival gave rise to new traditions, in particular the performances of medieval mystery plays in York and Chester. There was an explosion of interest in these plays, regular performance of which have continued in those cities ever since.