London Banter - View Single Post

Stephen Furley · May 25th 09, 02:26 PM posted to uk.rec.cycling,uk.transport.london,uk.railway

On 25/5/09 14:52, in article ,
"Christopher A. Lee" wrote:

Part of the festival was the amusement park at Battersea - with the
Emmet Railway. I loved this. I think the amusements stayed there after
the festival was over because we went there quite often.

I believe parts of this remained until quite recent times, maybe 15 years or
so ago, though I never went there. Another television documentary film,
'The River's Tale', Had some scenes filmed there I seem to remember.

There are still a few other remains of the Festival, and others which though
now gone survived for a long time; the Festival Hall is the main one of
course; there was a flagstaff on the South Bank in quite recent times, but
I'm not sure if it's still there. The long dis-used refreshment rooms, I
think that's what they were, at Broad Street Stations still had a sticker on
the windows with the Festival logo until the station was demolished.

The original 1951 prints of most of the 3-D films shown at the 'Telekinema'
still exist, and are screened from time to time, as the original
three-channel stereo magnetic tracks are now 'lost'. Other, non-3D, films
were also shown at the Festival. One of them, 'We've Come a Long Way',
about the design of oil tankers was later used by the BBC as one of their
'Trade Test Colour Films' in the '60s. I've actually got two prints of this
film, one 16mm, the other 35mm. It wasn't until I saw it mentioned in an
exhibition about the Festival at the National Film Theatre in 2001 that I
realised that it had been shown there.

A number of buildings were given architectural awards at the Festival. One
of these was the bus station at Newbury Park, just outside the Underground
station. This carries a plaque with the Festival on it's arch, though it is
in rather poor condition.