As first-year students at the School of Architecture in Margaret Street, we went in a party to London on Thursday 19 May 1951 to see all the great things that were promised for the Festival of Britain. We went to the South Bank which was still a site, where most of the stuff wasstill unfinished. We saw all the popular things like the Dome of Discovery and the Skylon, went round an unfinished Royal Festival Hall, but our treat was to go round a cinema designed by the progressive firm of Wells Coates - it so happened that a member of the staff had worked on the job, so we got some background information. The Festival opened later in June or July and I didn't get to London then.
In Birmingham there were a few things under the banner of the Festival of Britain. I remember going to several "plays in the parks" that summer, as I was very much in love and courting. Having kinky musical tastes I also went on my own to a performance by the counter-tenor Alfred Deller at St Philip's Cathedral, accompanied by Desmond Dupre on the lute. One of the pieces they did is still a classic recording today - "This is the record of John" by Orlando Gibbons.
Not everybody's taste of course.
Peter