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Story of Wandsworth

The Festival of Britain and the Coronation

Photo of the Festival of Britain display at Wandsworth Museum
Festival of Britain display at
Wandsworth Museum

A series of national festivities helped to boost morale during the post war years of austerity. The Festival of Britain of 1951 was a celebration of British science, history and culture. It marked the centenary of the Great Exhibition, by which it was inspired. Events took place all over the country. The Festival Pleasure Gardens were built at Battersea Park. 

In 1953, the country celebrated the coronation of Elizabeth II and looked forward to a new 'Elizabethan Age'. Many people attended local street parties and watched the pageantry on television.  

Photo of the The Guinness Clock, a highlight of the Festival Pleasure Gardens, Battersea Park
The Guinness Clock
a highlight of the Festival
Pleasure Gardens,
Battersea Park

  1. Introduction
  2. Prehistoric times
  3. Roman lives
  4. Medieval villages
  5. Tudor and Stuart times
  6. Civil war
  7. Refugees from Europe
  8. Georgian Wandsworth
  9. The Mayor of Garratt
  10. The Surrey Iron Railway
  11. The railway revolution
  12. Factories and furnaces
  13. Building the suburbs
  14. Schools and other services
  15. Time off
  16. Radical Battersea
  17. The First World War
  18. The 1920s and 1930s
  19. The Second World War
  20. Into the 50s
  21. A new landscape
  22. You are here: The Festival of Britain and the Coronation
  23. The 1960s – amalgamation of the boroughs
  24. The Changing face of Wandsworth

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