Franco-British Exhibition of 1908 - totally brilliant

The Entente cordiale was a series of agreements signed in 1904 between Britain and France. This Entente cordiale marked the end of centuries of sporadic conflict between the two nations and the start of a peaceful co-existence into the future. Both countries had to resolve their differences in the Americas, deal with the scramble for Africa, give each other freedom in Egypt and Morocco respectively, avoid coming to blows in the Russo-Japanese War in Asia and sort out the Pacific.

This miraculous achievement was, by itself, enough reason for a World Exhibition, along the lines of those held in London in 1851, Paris in 1855, Vienna in 1873, Sydney and Melbourne in 1879/1880, Chicago in 1893 and St Louis in 1904. But London was also about to stage the Olympic Games during the summer of 1908, a perfect time for attracting large crowds to the British capital. The project, the first-ever World Exhibition organised and sponsored by two separate nations, was held in an area of West London near Shepherd's Bush.

Even the local infrastructure was improved. Situated between Shepherd's Bush and White City, Wood Lane railway station was newly opened, specifically to serve the 1908 Franco-British exhibition. Railway buffs noted that there was an elevated enclosed walkway running from Shepherd's Bush, leading to several exhibition halls that were raised off the ground on stilts.

The Franco-British Exhibition of 1908

There is no doubt in my mind that both nations wanted to back up the Entente Cordiale via trade and commerce; only active international trade, it was thought, could promote international peace. It was not a coincidence that the French delegates were under the supervision of the Ministry of Commerce and not, for example, Foreign Affairs or Cultural Affairs. Nor is it a coincidence that a commercial attaché from France was named and hurriedly sent to London.

Eight million visitors walked through the turnstiles! They had a wonderful time, inspecting 140 acres of fairground land that included an artificial lake, surrounded by an immense network of white buildings in ornate, Orientalist architecture. In the Fine Arts Palace, British and French artists displayed the most modern paintings, by past and by living stars. Furniture and other decorative arts were stunning, commercial studio pottery was hugely popular and wall tiles charmed the viewers.

Court of Honour, Franco-British Exhibition (above) 

Fine Art Palace, Franco-British Exhibition (below)

As in earlier World Exhibitions, the most popular sites were those set up to explain and celebrate the success of European imperialism. Visitors loved the specially-built Irish and Senegalese villages where costumed natives frolicked in the summer sun.

For fantastic images from the 1908 World Exhibition, see Vintage Postcards and Postcards of the Past.

Did French visitors travel across the Channel in large numbers and were they as committed to the joint exhibition as the British were? A French reviewer wrote his immediate impressions. In his opinion, the most important of the pavilions, and in fact the only two that were really tasteful, were the Pavilion of the City of Paris and the rather florid Collectivite Delieux in the Art Nouveaux style. The Pavilion of the City of Paris was a blend of well-known examples of Gothic and French Renaissance, refined and graceful in its details, that gave visitors the reposeful pleasure always attending the contemplation of a pure work of art. Of course he would write that :)

The long term results of the 1908 Exhibition were felt on both sides of the Channel. For the centenary of the Franco-British Exhibition and the 1908 Olympic Games, a conference was devoted to Arts and Culture at the Turn of Century, organised by members of the Franco-British Network in partnership with their respective universities. In addition to the Exhibition and the Olympics, the emergence of new literary and artistic trends, the maturing of the industrial society in the modern city, as well as the importance of colonisation for these two countries, fully justified the scholarship. The main question was how did the artistic and cultural transformations take place in Edwardian France and Britain, taking into account the cultural exchanges, and the economic, technical and scientific factors then.

Marianne, a national emblem of France, and John Bull, a national personification of Great Britain, get it together.

A very useful booklet has been Great Exhibitions: The World Fairs 1851-1937, written by Robert Wilson and published by National Gallery of Victoria in 2008. Also you might find Franco-British Exhibition: Official souvenir, London, 1908: Sp Coll RB 1445

Garden Palace: Sydney's Exhibition Building 1879

The 1879 Sydney International Exhibition was held under the supervision of NSW’s Agricultural Society. There was initially some discussion about the Exhibition commemorating Cook’s discovery of Australia’s East coast. But a more urgent theme was emerging: a national interest in technical & industrial development, both in tertiary education and in the creation of museums.

After all, the Inter-colonial Exhibition of 1867 in Melbourne had been such a great stimulus that the NSW government bought many of the exhibits to place in the brand new Technological, Industrial and Sanitary Museum (later the Powerhouse Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences). Industrial development was a hot topic.

Furthermore the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879 would be the first World Exhibition in the southern hemisphere, far from the cultural and commercial centres of Europe. So there may have been a bit of national showing off involved.

In 1879, architect James Barnet was put in charge of the Sydney International Exhibition building. It was to be in the grounds of the Royal Botanic Gardens because the harbour frontage was so attractive, but in the end it occupied land that was just outside the Gardens.

The Colonial Architect’s Office completed this huge task in nine months, including preparing the drawings, management of the project accounts and payments, and supervision of the building. The Exhibition Building used the first electric light in Sydney, imported from Britain, to get through the project with around-the-clock shifts. To show you how early in electricity’s history this was, it would be another 25 years before a Lady Mayoress turned on the switch to illuminate Sydney streets, using power from Pyrmont Power Station 1904.

Sydney’s Exhibition Building was similar in design to Crystal Palace in London and similar also to the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.  And it was set in gorgeous garden settings, like these two other cities, thus inspiring the NSW Premier Sir Henry Parkes to call it the Garden Palace.

Garden Palace, exterior

The Italianate building consisted of 3 double storey, turreted wings meeting beneath a central dome which dominated Sydney's harbour skyline. Sydney's first hydraulic lift was contained in the north tower. Directly under its 64m high central dome was a fountain, and a huge statue of Queen Victoria. Inside there were excellent facilities including restaurants, an oyster bar and tea rooms. There was only one structural problem - there had been no time to use permanent and fire-retardant materials. Aside from the brick used in the foundations and the entrance towers, the majority of this vastly enormous building was wood and corrugated iron.
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Garden Palace had an impressive opening ceremony, in Sep 1879. Paolo Giorza (1832-1914) from Milano moved to Australia in late 1871. Politician Sir Patrick Jennings, a passionate music-lover, chose Giorza as director of music for the exhibition. Giorza was commissioned to compose the grand celebratory opening cantata which was scored for a large chorus and children's choir, soloists and a full orchestra. During the exhibition, Giorza also provided daily concerts, some of them grand orchestral and choral occasions, with Handel's oratorios prominent as well as band and chamber music and piano recitals.

Spectacular pieces from the Sèvres porcelain factory, established in 1738 at Chateau de Vincennes, were among the many decorative art items sent by France for the 1879 Exhibition, to demonstrate France’s rich cultural heritage. One label said: “this vase was a gift from the French commissioner which acknowledged "proof of the lively and sincere sympathy of my Government for your flourishing colony but above all a token of the full appreciation my countrymen have of the energy and freedom of the inhabitants of Australia, freedom extended to all, whatever may be their origin."

Garden Palace Interior, display courts

By the time the Sydney Exhibition closed in April 1880, a million visitors had paid to go through the turnstiles. Architect James Barnet might have been criticised in Parliament because the project greatly overran its budget and the Exhibition lost money. Yet the exhibition was judged a determining landmark in the history of the NSW Colony, marking that state's sense of achievement, progress and aspirations on the world stage.

Some collections, put together for the 1879 Exhibition, lasted. The paintings in the fine arts display, for example, became the nucleus of the government’s art collection. The first purpose-built art gallery building was opened in 1884, only 5 years later.

According to Scratching Sydney's Surface, the Garden Palace was originally intended as a temporary structure, but as it had proved such a success, the authorities decided to keep it.  So when the timber Palace was completely engulfed by fire in Sep 1882 and destroyed, it was a total disaster. The newspapers suggested three possible reasons for the blaze. One theory was that wealthy Macquarie St residents, upset their harbour views had been stolen by the giant building, lit the blaze. Another was that it was burnt to destroy the 1881 census. Stored in the Garden Palace, the records apparently exposed embarrassing secrets about the convict origins of many leading families. Or possibly the fire was just an accident.

Garden Palace gates.

What remains of the Garden Palace today? Nothing, really. Even the beautifully carved sandstone gateposts and wrought iron gates, located on the Macquarie Street entrance to the Royal Botanical Gardens, were built as an entrance to the new gardens in 1888.  And the one artefact from the 1879 Exhibition that did survive the fire - a carved graphite statue of an elephant, from Ceylon - is displayed elsewhere (at the Powerhouse Museum). A 1940s-era sunken garden, and fountain featuring a statue of Cupid, merely mark the location of the Palace's once impressive dome.

19th century amusement centres, healthy living, sport, fun

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Max Liebermann, Boys Bathing, 1898

The concept of "healthy living" witnessed the peak of its development by the late C19th and early C20th. Once most people had left the countryside and moved into city life, the seaside held a held a special position in peoples’ thinking as a place of cleanliness, good health, fresh air, exercise and above all fun. But when more pleasure-orientated themes emerged in the late C19th, seaside holiday resorts had to compete with man-made entertainment centres, often water-based.

It was largely in Germany that the healthy living movement concerned itself more with rigorous exercise, good food and fresh air, and less with fun and relaxation. Max Liebermann and other artists documented young men swimming, running naked and staying fit. [Of course as soon as I say that, Victorian/Edwardian Paintings produces muscle-rippling images by British artist Henry Tuke who depicted young, athletic male nudes basking in the sun on a Cornish beach].

Vienna, Prater Park

Examine some sporting and entertainment centres of the late C19th. St Kilda Baths is an old Melbourne institution which I have photographed in this blog before. The cold sea baths and hotel on St Kilda main beach were originally called the Gymnasium Baths 1862. Since swimming from the open beach was prohibited during daylight hours, bathers were obliged to keep within the walls of the baths. The complex must have been quite exciting because it included a gymnasium, refreshment rooms and a swimming space in the bay that was protected from sharks. How clever of the designers to maximise the entertainment opportunities offered during the hot months. The hot sea baths and changing sheds came later, but eventually it all burned down and was replaced with a piece of exotica called South Pacific, complete with Arabian style façade (sic).

Vienna's World Expo of 1873 was built in Prater Park, located on Danube and Canal on an isolated island in the NE part of the city. The arrival of coffee-houses and cafés led to the start of the Wurstelprater, but it was never a centre of active sports; its c4,000 acres included more leisurely entertainment: lawns, gardens, landscaped lakes, forests. The 61 m in diameter Riesenrad wheel, at the entrance of the Prater, was not erected until 1897, to celebrate Emperor Franz Josef I's golden Jubilee. For wonderful photos of the 1873 Expo, see the Dinosaurs and Robots blog.

Cabaret Berlin said that until 1933, one of Europe's largest amusement park was Luna Park in the Halensee area of Berlin at the far end of the Kurfüstendamm. It featured a water slide, swimming pool,  theatres, jazz and cabaret stages, dance halls, Bavarian-themed beer village, nightly fireworks displays and boxing tournaments. The restaurants and bars could seat 16,000 people!

The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago was the first world's fair with an area for amusements that was specifically removed from the more serious exhibition spaces. Midway Plaisance included carnival rides, side shows and the John Phillip Sousa band. But above all it had the original Ferris wheel, designed by George Washington Ferris, as an entertainment centrepiece. It consisted of an upright, rotating wheel, with passenger gondolas attached to the rim. Brian Karpuk at newsburglar suggested the Ferris Wheel was the Chicago Expo’s answer to the 1889 Paris Expo’s Eiffel Tower.

Chicago Expo's entertainment area

The Kursaal Amusement Park and Gardens at Southend On Sea in Essex was the brainchild of some local professional men who bought land in town to build a new park, for both residents and holiday makers. This Marine Park and Gardens section opened in 1894. The Kursaal section was completed in 1901, with a great silver dome over the entrance. Presumably the spa part of the complex was intended as a place of healthy amusement. The other fun facilities included a circus, ballroom, arcade with amusements, dining hall, games rooms an extremely long pleasure pier. Livepoets blog has wonderful seaside resort images from after the turn of the century.

Southend, Essex

Perhaps the most amazing entertainment, amusement and healthy living centre was in Edinburgh. The Royal Patent Gymnasium was designed by businessman and philanthropist John Cox. Cox had decided that Edinburgh citizens required somewhere to exercise and improve their physical fitness, and conceived the idea of using a large sheltered area in the northern part of Edinburgh New Town as an open-air pleasure-ground for the 'promotion of healthful recreation'. Opened in 1865, it was definitely part of the commitment to healthy recreation.

As you can see from the 1867-68 advertisements, the Gymnasium's showpiece was a giant rotary boat for rowers. In addition, the Gym also provided equipment for outdoor games in summer and ice-skating in winter. It included an extensive exhibition hall, erected in 1868; a velocipede merry-go-round, 160’ in circumference; a gigantic see-saw, 100’ long; extensive ponds with supply of small boats and canoes; swimming baths; a training bicycle course, with bicycles for hire; and an athletics track. Brass bands played music on weekends. For a 6d entrance fee, each customer bought a great deal of exercise and fun.

Royal Patent Gym Edinburgh, rotary boat

The Royal Patent Gymnasium was hugely popular, until the end of the century when all the equipment was taken away. The site later became a football pitch for St Bernard's Football Club.

The Purkersdorf Sanitarium in Vienna was not an amusement centre, but it was not a hospital either. And it really wasn't late 19th century either, starting as it did in 1903. But it _was_ part of the healthy living movement, available to that part of Viennese society who could afford its mineral baths, physical therapies, therapeutic massages and physiotherapy. Through silence, exercise, fresh air and rather austere architecture, cures of the new illnesses such as nervousness, and hysteria were sought. Fortunately for the residents, reading rooms, card rooms, table tennis, billiards and music were also provided.

A very similar sort of sanatorium was identified by ThinkShop and at the very same time. Max Bircher founded a sanatorium in Zürich in 1904 and, because it was based on harmony between people and nature, he called it Living Force. As at Purkersdorf, this clinic appealed to the well heeled who flocked there to rejuvenate their bodies and souls. Again like Purkersdorf, the residents had to follow a somewhat rigorous daily schedule that involved early bedtime, physical training and active gardening work. But Bircher added another element, perhaps his most important contribution to healthy living: the healing power of raw fruits, vegetables and muesli.

Alexandra Palace London: a peoples' palace

Alexandra Palace was to be built in the Muswell Hill part of North London in 1873 as a public centre of recreation and education. The Great Northern Palace Company had been established by 1860, but financing the project was so difficult that by July 1863, only the park had been opened to the public. Alexandra Park was named after Alexandra of Denmark, who had recently married Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales.

The original design suggestions came from architect Owen Jones (1809-74). People at the time suggested the complex was North London's counterpart to the 1851 Crystal Palace in South London. This may have been even closer to the truth than they realised: Jones had been responsible for the interior decoration and exhibits for that Great Exhibition building, Crystal Palace. And after the building was moved to Sydenham, Jones was jointly responsible for the decoration and layout for the new Crystal Palace  which opened in 1854 as a "permanent" venue for education and entertainment.

However when construction of the Alexandra Palace commenced in Sept 1865, the design was somewhat different from the glass structure initially proposed by Jones. Architects John Johnson (1807-78) and Alfred Meeson (1808-85) took over formal responsibility for the building.

Parliament declined the plan to purchase the main building from the 1862 World Exhibition in London, so it was demolished and the materials were used to build Alexandra Palace instead. Set in its own gardens of 196 acres, this lovely new palace covered 7.5 acres.

In 1871 work started on a railway line to connect the site to Highgate Station. Work on both the railway and the palace was completed in 1873 and, in May Alexandra Palace and Park was opened. Ordinary working families must have loved the site; hundreds of thousands visited in the first fortnight.

Sometimes I cannot believe how lucky I am. William Parrott (1813-75) painted a View of Alexandra Palace on the Hill before the Fire, a painting I had never heard of. Would you believe that Victorian Paintings blog posted that very painting a fortnight ago, showing the height of the hill and the density of the bushland.
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Alas only 16 days after the Palace was inaugurated, a fire destroyed the palace and some members of staff. The magnificent exhibition of English porcelain, containing 4,700 important objects, was destroyed.

Alexandra Palace today

Fortunately the palace was quickly rebuilt, the glass expanses replaced by stronger materials. Pillars provided storage for tons of water in the four corner towers and in reservoirs built into the end walls of the Great Hall. Reopening in May 1875, the rebuilt palace contained a concert hall and theatre, art galleries and a museum, a lecture hall and library, and a banqueting room. They were certainly ambitious.

Apparently an open-air swimming pool and a race-course with grandstand were built in the surrounding park, but I haven’t seen any photos of them. What I have seen photos of are the Japanese village, a lovely boating lake and a golf course. Cricket and football club have played within the grounds since 1888. TravelBlog said Alexandra Palace - A palace for the people gives a panoramic view of the city because the location is London’s highest natural point.

In a disastrous move that sounds eerily modern, the owners of the Palace and Park were threatening to sell them for redevelopment at the turn of the century. It literally became the People's Palace by the Alexandra Park and Palace Act 1900 that gave the facilities to the people of London, with its Park, in trust for all time. As with all great buildings, according to Ali’s Blog, Alexandra Palace was converted to other uses at times of national need. During the 1914-8 war, for example, the park was closed and the palace and grounds were used as a refugee camp.

Later, in the 1930s, it was used as transmission centre for the new BBC Television Service. Success Mastermind Alliances blog described visiting the Palace this year to see the old BBC studio, where the first high definition TV was transmitted, and the Alexandra Palace Theatre.

Palm Court, today. Compare this image to Crystal Palace's glass covered courts

The cavernous Great Hall and West Hall are now used as an exhibition centre and conference centre, operated by the “trading arm” of the charitable trust that owns the building and park on behalf of the public.