BACK TO THE FUTURE
Remembering Glasgow's 1938 Empire Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of 1851 is well-established within our collective national memory. Set in the purpose-built Crystal Palace in London’s Hyde Park, and highlighting the latest British inventions as well as the wealth of the colonies, it was considered an international triumph – perhaps in no small part because it occurred at the very height of British imperial power.
Taking place over 85 years later in Glasgow – then still ‘the Second City of the Empire’ – the Empire Exhibition of 1938 was a very similar beast. There were changes, though: it was out with steampowered hammers and that perennial Victorian obsession of stuffed animals arranged in suitably middle class poses. Instead, it was in with modernist architecture, coloured electric lights and a series of stunning fountains and artificial waterfalls.
Designed primarily by Thomas. S. Tait, working with a team of nine other architects, the 174-acre site in Bellahouston Park featured more than 100 temporary buildings. These included various pavilions (hosting both companies and representatives from Commonwealth and colonial states), an amusement park, a Palace of Art, and the Clachan, a life-size replica of a Highland village.
The crowning glory was the Tait Tower, a 300ft-tall steel structure on top of a 200ft hill, which allowed up to 600 visitors at a time to gaze out over the exhibits, the park and all the way down to the Clyde. With the exception of the Highland village, all the displays were modern. But the purpose was in the tradition of the Great Exhibition – to proclaim Britain and the British Empire as a country at the forefront of the world when it came to design, engineering and industry.
As Pathé News reported from the opening ceremony, the aim was to glorify ‘the British character, the British spirit and determination, the British will to win’. It went on to say, ‘It is not enough that we should possess these: we must tell the world about them. And that’s Scotland’s job!’
Glasgow’s House for an Art Lover (HFAAL) – originally designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh as an artistic country retreat in 1901, though the plans were not brought to life until 1989 – lies on the same site occupied by the Empire Exhibition in Bellahouston Park. Nothing from the exhibition remains, save for the Palace of Art, which now serves as a leisure centre.
In their account of the 1938 exhibition, House for an Art Lover said it was a response to the dark clouds gathering over Europe. These were indeed troubled times: 1936, the year in which construction began, saw Hitler invade Austria by the back door, while his aggressive movement of troops into Czechoslovakia took place only a few weeks after the opening ceremony in May 1938.
The House for an Art Lover notes that ‘the speed at which the Empire Exhibition was put together [ten months], could be viewed as a response to Nazi Germany’s threatening behaviour – a message to Hitler.’
The effect that the exhibition had on Hitler is unknown, and was likely non-existent. It certainly didn’t succeed in propping up Britain’s imperial aspirations, which were already declining before World War Two, after which they disappeared almost entirely.
But the impact the Empire Exhibition had on those who went to see it – particularly those from Glasgow – was far more lasting, and overwhelmingly positive. A joint project set up in 2007 by the School of Stimulation and Visualisation (formerly the Digital Design
Studio) at the Glasgow School of Art, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and HFAAL, set out to find and record firsthand testimony from former visitors.
‘My girlfriend and I got season tickets for our birthdays and we made great use of them,’ said Glaswegian Kit Ritchie, who described the joy of visiting again and again. ‘I think we went several times a week, and certainly on Saturdays! It was wonderful. You left grimy old Glasgow behind and went in and saw all these fabulous buildings. Beautiful curves and glass parts – it was completely new to us. And the fountains, right up to Tait’s tower. I had this impression of sparkle and sunshine.’
Gladys Lilley said, ‘The exhibition was the best thing that has ever happened to Glasgow, in my opinion. I’m just sorry that something like that has never come back.’
She added that it wasn’t only young women who felt compelled to attend multiple times. ‘It was so well attended, there were bus-loads who came in from all over the country,’ she said. ‘My father had a season ticket and he was there every night. He’d come home from work, have his tea and say “That’s me”, and off he’d go. He certainly got his money’s worth.’
The fact that the exhibition was not permanent seemed to be strongly felt, especially regarding the destruction of the Tait Tower, which was demolished in July 1939. Tom McGinley, who visited when he was nine years old, stated that it was ‘an Eiffel Tower in Glasgow – they should never have done that [torn it down].’ Despite the obvious affection amongst attendees, the exhibition didn’t do as well as hoped.
An overview given by the University of Glasgow’s archives notes that it was ‘hoped that the exhibition would draw 20 million visitors. Despite this, when it closed on 29 October the total number of visitors was only 12,593,232. Overall, it is estimated that the Empire Exhibition lost approximately £128,000, and plans to reopen it in 1939 were quashed.’
But quite possibly, they had aimed too high. As the Glasgow City Archives note, the visitor numbers were ‘almost triple Scotland’s population at the time’.
In addition to the exhibition’s lofty aims for the world stage, it had always been the intention that the project would help Glasgow to regain a sense of pride and purpose, having suffered economic hardship since World War One, which had only increased after the Depression.
The exhibition was intended to renew confidence in Glasgow’s key industries – most notably shipbuilding – and to provide new employment opportunities. House for an Art Lover notes that the project ‘gave Glaswegians a view of a brighter future. About 75% of Glasgow in the 1930s was lit by flickering gas lamps, and many buildings were coated in the soot of industrial chimneys; whereas the exhibition was brand new, clean and modern.’
To the visitor, the 1938 Empire Exhibition provided an escape from the dark, dirty streets of Glasgow. In order to visualise the now-faded exhibition, the above joint project also undertook the building of a 3D graphic model of the entire site. The Glasgow City Archives in the Mitchell Library contributed extensively to this, providing access to some of the very few concept drawings that still exist.
The interactive map – now the best record of what was once present in Bellahouston Park – can be found at empireexhibition.com and allows the interested observer to scroll through the avenues, pavilions and boulevards of an exhibition that was to be the last of its kind within the British Empire.