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Lexicon Festival of Britain _____________________________________________________ After WW2 most of London lay in ruins of bombed and burnt-out buildings. The first idea for an exhibition in 1951 came from the Royal Society of Arts in 1943, which considered that an international exhibition should be held to commemorate the centenary of the 1851 Great Exhibition. The Labour government decided instead to hold a series of displays about the arts, architecture, science, technology and industrial design under the title ''Festival of Britain 1951'', although it was insisted that there be no politics, explicit or implicit. However the democratisation of architecture and its employment in the public domain, thereby sensitising a broad public to modernity, found purchase, not only in Britain but the broader British dominions, including South Africa, particularly amongst those of socialist leanings. Hugh Casson was appointed Director of Architecture. He then appointed further young architects to design the South Bank buildings and riverside walkway most of which were designed in the International Style. The 'festival style', more widely known now as ''mid-century [British] modern'', tempered modernism with bright colour, natural materials, murals and sculpture. It was inclusive in its references and in its appeal. CHIPKIN (1993:137, 138) refers to the style, as "intrusive" to Johannesburg architecture in the 1950s, which "provided images of packaged, instant modernity" creating "cardboard-like, flimsy appliqué..." embodying "the decorative and impermanency of temporary architecture as seen at the Festival of Britain." Buildings on this website in Festival of Britain style Rane House: c. 1960. Central, Cape Town, Western Cape Cresthill Mansion: 1953. Hillbrow, Johannesburg, Gauteng