1938 EMPIRE
EXHIBITION REVISITED
by
Stanley
Hunter.
An
evening devoted to the 1938 Empire Exhibition Revisited was held on February
20, 1997 on its original site. It was organised by a local group ‘Polloshields
Heritage’ and was staged in Bellahouston Park. The 1938 exhibition was held in
175 acres of the park, which lies in the South Side of Glasgow.
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The
evening programme was organised in the House for an Art Lover. This remarkable
building was designed by Charles RennieMackintosh (CRM) simply for a magazine
competition in 1900. It was not realised until 90 years later, as a feature of
Glasgow’s reign as European City of Culture in 1990. It was completed in 1996
with funds from the European Community. CRM had
submitted plans for the 1901 Glasgow International
Exhibition held in Kelvingrove Park in the city’s West End. Two frames of these
(unaccepted) plans had been on show at the blockbuster CRM Exhibition staged
last year in the McLellan Galleries during May to December 1996. Queues wrapped
themselves round the block to pay £4 to see the exhibition. It moved to the Met.
in New York to critical acclaim before moving to the Art Institute of Chicago
in March 1997 and then Los Angeles County Museum until October 1997. CRM had to
be content with designing a few important stands at the 1901 exhibition. Water
colours of his were displayed in 1938 in the Palace of Art, the only remaining
exhibition building in Bellahouston Park. One of these paintings was on show at
the McLellan in 1996 and went on the USA tour. The main feature in 1997 was a
talk given by broadcaster and journalist Bob Crampsey (a past Brain of Britain
and former local headmaster). Bob had been to the exhibition as a young
schoolboy and wrote ‘The Empire Exhibition 1938 - The Last Durbar’ which is a
popular account of the exhibition, (ISBN 1 85158 122 at £12.95). His talk was
illustrated by a video of a colour home movie of a trip to the exhibition, now
held in the Scottish Film Archives, Glasgow.
To
support him I was asked to mount a display of memorabilia and postcards and
this proved popular. A number of treasured souvenirs were brought along by the
audience of around 150. these varied from a beautiful doll, a hand made celtic
silver crafted sporran and a little ‘Carlton Ware’
china toast rack to a Ministry of Labour Job Card for a joiner who worked at
the exhibition and still lives locally. I must find out if he took part in the
joiners strike at the exhibition.
I
also had a supply of the new ‘Mayfair Cards of London’ postcard of ‘Glasgow
1938 Transport’ (BB789). This is based oon the cover of Glasgow Corporation’s
Tram and Bus Guide for 1938. It shows a Coronation No. 3 ‘Exhibition’ Tram and
a bus with Thomas S. Tait’s Tower of Empire in the background. It has already
been reproduced on a smaller ‘Dalkeith’ card. A similar tram was reproduced in
the British Transport set of Europa stamps issued in 1988. It was also en route
to the exhibition and the actual tram shown is preserved in the Glasgow Museum
of Transport at the Kelvin Hall, Kelvingrove.
Also
shown in the House for an Art Lover was an extensive selection of models of
Tait’s Tower, the centre piece of the exhibition. It stood over 300ft high on
the drumlin which was already 170 ft above sea level. The 3,000 tons of
concrete foundation still remains in the hillside, not far from the House for
an Art Lover. Admission in 1997 cost £2.50 and the ticket was a facsimile of an
1938 annual season ticket, which cost 25 shillings (£1.25).