Festival of Britain - Festival Pleasure Gardens

Festival Pleasure Gardens

The Festival Pleasure Gardens were created as the lighter side of the Festival of Britain. They were put up in Battersea Park, a few miles from the South Bank Exhibition. They included:

• an amusement park which would eventually outlast all the other entertainments and later become 'Battersea Fun Fair', only closing in the mid 1970s.
• a miniature railway designed by Roland Emett which ran for 500 yards along the south of the gardens with a station near the south east entrance and another (with snack bar at the western end of the line;
• "a 'West End' Restaurant with a terrace overlooking the river and facing Cheyne Walk;
• 'Foaming Fountains' (which have recently been restored);
• a wine garden surrounded by miniature pavilions;
• a wet weather pavilion with a stage facing two ways so that performances could be done in the open air, with murals by the film set designer Ferdinand Bellan;
• an amphitheatre seating 1,250 people, featuring the music hall star Lupino Lane and his company on its opening, and later used as a circus;

Most of the buildings and pavilions on the site were designed by John Piper." There was also a "Guinness Festival Clock" The Pleasure Gardens received as many visitors as the South Bank Festival. They were managed by a specially-formed private company financed by loans from the Festival Office and the London County Council. As they failed to cover their costs, it was decided to keep them open after the rest of the Festival closed.