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In these days, scientists also play a full-time role in modern industry to solve current problems and to provide fundamental knowledge on which new developments can be built. ('South Bank Exhibition' guide book)

My other principal recollection is of a display of street lampposts along the riverside. All types and styles were represented including those that folded down to allow the bulbs to be changed at ground level. A ten year old was fascinated. (contributor Richard Morse, aged 10 in 1951) Why not contribute your memories?

The Festival promoted science that had a purpose. It envisaged a future made more efficient and comfortable by innovation and scientific discovery. These advances were to benefit both men in the workplace and women in their workplace - the home. The Festival took a largely polarised view of the roles of men and women, little anticipating the changes that would see women entering environments that had been traditionally male. It focused upon heavy industry rather than upon the light and service industries that were to dominate Britain's post-war economy.

the life of men

They showed you how they baked ice cream wafers, and the oven was long - terrific long oven, electric oven - it went in at one end and came out the other end all packed up as ice cream wafers, splosh one end, ice cream wafer t'other. (oral history interviewee Betty Phillips, in her late 20s in 1951) Why not contribute your memories?

In contrast to the celebrations of local traditional crafts that were organised all over the country in 1951, the main Festival Exhibitions largely embraced the mechanisation of industry and farming. Mechanisation was presented as increasing efficiency, creating more comfortable and safer working environments, and enabling mass production.

Inside the Country Pavilion, photograph by contributor John Benning Why not contribute your memories?

In agriculture, for instance, the Farm and Factory Exhibition in Ulster presented the latest mechanical equipment as part of a farmyard of the future, explaining that it was both labour saving and allowed the farmer to do most of his work around the yard under cover. Meanwhile the Country Pavilion within the South Bank Exhibition described the transformation of the farmer, no longer 'the old-style yokel, a rough, uncultured being in corduroys', now a 'technician'. But alongside the tractors gently rising and falling on pistons, some unease about industrial progress was expressed in the assurance that mechanisation did not mean the end of crafts and craftsmanship.

This was the first time I saw a Henry Moore and hens in battery cages. (contributor John Freiyer, aged 20 in 1951) Why not contribute your memories?

The ideal hen of today is, throughout her life, just a single item in a great machine; little is asked from her except that she shall feed herself and lay some eggs. ('South Bank Exhibition' guide book)

the life of women

Hoover Limited take pride in the fact that their products are saving millions of housewives from hard, wearisome drudgery. (Advert in the 'South Bank Exhibition' guide book)

The woman, still largely seen as the homemaker by the Festival of Britain, was also to benefit from innovative ideas and scientific advances which would improve the domestic environment and ease her work. Much emphasis was placed upon new fabrics and laminate surfaces which would be durable and easy to clean. As in industry, labour saving devices were promoted as aids to more efficient working in the home. But regardless of this there was still be much to be done in the home and the woman's role was therefore still an important and challenging one. For this reason a redesigned home was proposed which would use space efficiently while ensuring that she was not isolated in the kitchen. As explained in the Homes and Gardens Pavilion of the South Bank Exhibition, the two-purpose kitchen, where food could be eaten as well as cooked, would bring the housewife 'back where she belongs - into the social life of the house - without interrupting her work in the kitchen'. And in order to ensure that it was a pleasant working environment, in the show flat at Lansbury 'colour schemes have been chosen for the kitchen which are cheery and gay, as a great deal of the time of the housewife will be spent in this room.'

An original note has been introduced in the bathroom by the use of ordinary hand towels as curtains. This innovation has much to recommend it as they are easily washed and do not deteriorate in the heat and steam. Moreover the wearing quality is extremely good and the price comparable with curtain material. ('The 1951 Furnished Flat' by the London Co-operative Society)