Festival Preview
13% I DWARD HODGKIN 0 N the plans of the South Bank Exhibition you will find a dotted red line which tells you the order in which the authorities think you ought to look at the pavilions —" recommended. circulation ' is what it is called. This line starts you off at the Land of Britain Pavilion, swings you through Minerals, Seas and Ships, the Dome of Discovery, the People of Britain, Homes, Schools, Health and so on, and lands you up at the Regatta Restaurant, ready for a glass of native refresh- ment and the quiet contemplation of Shell-Mex House across the river.
But for the ninety-nine citizens out of a hundred who will not know about the dotted red line, or who will not care to do anything about it, or who will get flustered trying to follow it, these brief notes of a tour round the Exhibition site, in the course of which the investigator only caught up with the line half way through, may be of interest. It should be added that the tour was made four days before the opening, when the Exhibition was much more of a puzzle than it will be when it is ready. "Mistake directions in Waterloo Station and miss main entrance to Exhibition. Enter through gap in hoarding in York Road. Stand lost in admiration of Dome of Discovery (largest dome in the world) and Skylon, which looks like Edward Lear's drawing of the Quangle-Wangle. Snowstorm causes hurried retreat into nearest building, which turns out to be Pavilion of Transport. Locomotives, old and modern ; aeroplanes sus- pended froth roof ; 'place for cars ; place for bicycles. Fascinating for children. Open metal stairs lead up three storeys. Terrifying for parents. " Down again quickly. Snow turned to rain. Cut across to Pavilion of Homes and Gardens. No homes or gardens to be seen. Plenty of gardens being made around and about the site, though. Tulips in large saucers, azaleas, primulas and bamboos. Should all look very nice if they survive the snow. Loud- speakers everywhere relaying music. (Query, from Festival Hall, to which there is no admittance.) " Move on to Health Pavilion. Mural of Florence Nightingale about ten yards high. Illuminated photographs of plastic surgery, multiple burns, rickety children, &c. Diagram of heart operation. Lots about penicillin. Glass cases full of catheters, stomach-pumps and hypodermic syringes. Not very festive. Pavilion of New Schools next door sounds more cheering. Try to get in. Doors seem barricaded. Follow the queue and end up in staff canteen. Try again. End up on Waterloo Bridge. Try again.. Door opens into First-Aid Post. Abandon Pavilion of New Schools.
Rain stopped. Time and opportunity ripe for visiting Cress Room, where presentation is made of half-crown programme and dry martini. (Query, fourteen-year-old girl in Press Nbar representative of Eagle?) Discover from programme about thin red line and resolve to follow it. Go back to start. i.e.. to Pavilion number one, the Land of Britain. Fine pavilion. Panels showing basic national minerals—slate, limestone, coal. salt. iron-ore. No coal in coal panel. No slate in slate panel for matter of that. Nice piece of uranium ore, quite unguarded.
"Thin red line moves on to Pavilion of the Natural Scene and Pavilion of the Country. Beautiful photographs of bird sanctuaries. Trip over stuffed eiderduck. eiderdrake and eider- chick left in the fairway. Case containing honey-bee wrapped up in travelling rug with pencilled notice on it saying he must be kept at temperature of at least 55 degrees. Lucky bee. Only completed exhibit is glass case full of butterflies, including swallow-tail, alive and fluttering. Informative stranger in front of case says: You know, five minutes inside there and you'd.
get hay-fever.' Ask why. It's those cabbage whites. Can't learn to stay still. Look at all the pollen coming off their wings.' Resolve not to spend five minutes inside butterfly case. Dis- tracted from informative stranger by sound of nightingales. Halfway up stairs find much-enlarged Bewick woodcut of nightingale, lit up by internal electric light, carolling away like mad. Lighting switches to enlarged woodcut of cuckoo. Cuckoo noises. Talented electrician eating sandwich imitates cuckoo. Equally talented mates follow suit. Pavilion of the Country becomes bedlam.
" Abandon thin red line and make straight for Dome of Dis- covery (missing out Pavilions of Power and Production and Seas and Ships). Dome of Discovery enormous and very dark. Best place in the world for flagging visitors on a hot summer day. Full of information—maps, explorers, pest control, archaeology and so on. (Memo. Huge overhead map of world shows Jordan and Israel part of British Empire.) Programme says, Proceed up escalator to Outer Space.' Escalator fortunately not working. " Loud-speakers all over Exhibition now switched from music to test announcements. Subjects chosen for announcements ominous: dangerous drugs lost ; make way for the ambulance ; trains from Waterloo cancelled, &c., &c. , "Time to attend showing of stereoscopic films at Telecinema. Seats very comfortable. Stereoscopic films (some of which arc also stereophonic) obviously destined to be big attraction of Exhibition. Audience presented with rose-coloured spectacles. which make things on the screen appear to loom out over the auditorium. Undoubtedly marvel of science and film technique of the future, but have reactionary views about fish and sca- lions swimming about in auditorium usually considered sacred to Man.
" Nip across to mysterious pavilion called the Lion and the Unicorn. Consult programme. The title of the pavilion serves to symbolise two of the main qualities of the national character: on the one hand. realism and strength ; on the other, fantasy. independence and imagination.' Good show. Fine china being unpacked. Life-size statue of White Knight centrepiece of the room. Horse complete. but no Knight on top. Must have fallen off. Most ingenious lion and unicorn made out of straw. Notice above them says: We arc the lion and the unicorn.
symbols of the soli . . (citous? tary? citors?). Doves (not Picasso's) perilously suspended from ceiling on string. Also symbolic ? Large notice says: Democracy begins at home but doesn't stay there.' Hm " Back to river front. Pavilion of Sport closed to Press. Next door to obscurantist Sport is Pavilion of the Seaside. Very charming gay model of seaside town front which looks like Dieppe on a bright day. Keen north wind blowing off Thames helps marine illusion and drives investigator in search of lunch. No lunch. Restaurant functionary says. 'Cest terrible ! Accent
authentic. Head north across Bailey Bridge. Seen from North Bank. South Bank looks very fine. Must go back some time."
These jottings are probably of not much use to intending visitors, whose own impressions of South Bank will depend on. such imponderables as the state of the weather, the fit of their shoes, the number of children they have to escort, and above all on the degree of optimism or pessimism with which they set out. Endowed, as all native visitors to the Exhibition are, with the qualities of fantasy. independence and imagination, they will rightly resist any suggestions of what they are going to think about the South Bank when they get there. But it is worth reminding them that when it opens they will be able to see a great deal more than was available to the Press before the opening. and that what they do see will be labelled, so that there will be more realism and less fantasy than these notes suggest. Also, of course, there will be the Pleasure Gardens just around the corner, every day of the week except Sundays.
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