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As we look forward to the year 1951, each of us can share in the anticipation of an event which may be outstanding in our lives. The motives which inspire the Festival are common to us all - pride in our past and all that it has meant, confidence in the future which holds so many opportunities for us to continue our contribution to the well being of mankind, and thanksgiving that we have begun to surmount our trials. (George VI's royal message, 1949)

The Festival of Britain is often viewed as marking the end of the 1940s, a decade marked by war and social change, and the beginning of the 1950s and a period of increasing affluence. Poised on this threshold, the Festival depicted a present which combined elements of the past with predictions and precursors of the future. Unsurprisingly, given the Festival's fundamental aim to cheer people up, its view of the past and indeed the future was nostalgic, drawing out the positive and drawing a veil over the negative. But underlying its proclaimed confidence was a foundation of uncertainty. Where should Britain find its inspiration? And what did it actually mean to be British?

finding inspiration

Yet while the Festival may be seen as a last expression of the spirit of 1945, it was significant in foreshadowing the future. The Festival helped to popularise a new style of living. (Paul Addison, 'Now the War is Over', 1985)

If the Festival has stimulated anything of value, it was possibly less in what it introduced that in what it revived... In the end, for all its gleaming modernity, the Festival looked resolutely backwards. (Daniel Snowman, 'BBC History magazine', 2001)

Commentators writing in retrospect about the Festival often focus upon the question of whether it was fundamentally backward looking or forward looking. They weigh up the Victoriana of the Festival Pleasure Gardens with the modernism of the South Bank and come to their conclusion. What all agree is that the Festival did look both backward and forward, presenting the visitor with a potent and challenging mix of past and future influences and ideas. Arguably in representing and reflecting the present of 1951, the Festival itself did not quite know where to find its inspiration or how to balance the security of the familiar with the exciting possibilities for the future. Are we any more sure now about what this balance should be?

being British

In 1951 Britain was coming to terms with the loss of its Empire and trying to decide its role in Europe and its position in relation to the two superpowers that had emerged from the Second World War - the United States and the Soviet Union. Unsure of how things were going to turn out, the Festival employed insularity as a shield against these dilemmas. It was self-professedly and unashamedly a Festival of Britain, and, on the whole, a Festival of Britain alone. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, are these issues any more settled?

I remember enjoying myself very much, although it all seemed very big. I also remember feeling very patriotic and have always remembered it as very awe-inspiring. (contributor Margaret Rose White) Why not contribute your memories?