Greater London, Kensington And Chelsea, Kensington, Victoria And Albert Museum
Museum (19th Century) - (20th Century)
Site Name Greater London, Kensington And Chelsea, Kensington, Victoria And Albert Museum
Classification Museum (19th Century) - (20th Century)
Alternative Name(s) 'Britain Can Make It' Exhibition, Hall Of The Future
Canmore ID 284750
Site Number TQ27NE 4
NGR TQ 2700 7910
NGR Description Centred on TQ 2700 7910
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/284750
- Council Not Applicable
- Parish Kensington And Chelsea
- Former Region Greater London
- Former District Kensington And Chelsea
- Former County Greater London
Building Notes
The Britain Can Make It exhibition was held between September and November 1946 at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. It was organised and sponsored by the Council of Industrial Design. Basil Spence and James Gardner were commissioned as chief architect and chief designer; they were allocated 90,000 square feet of floor space to create an exhibition with the aim of promoting of British design and manufacturing.
After six years of war Britain was in severe debt and needed to sell goods abroad. This meant that, for the short term at least, all the goods on display were for the export market only. However, the organisers were keen to present the idea of the need for design to the British public as well as to the overseas markets. The contemporary press described it as ‘a national exhibition of design’.
Archive Details and Summary
The Sir Basil Spence Archive contains a presentation perspective by Basil Spence of the Hall of the Future. Also contained is an album of press cuttings; these show that manufacturers were keen to be included in the exhibition. The organisers had to choose 6,000 exhibits from the 20,000 sent in by more than 3,000 manufacturers.
The Archive also includes descriptions of how the exhibition was organised. For example, the first section was dedicated to the achievements of British manufacturers in the transition from war to peace. It was filled with consumer goods that had been developed from wartime inventions, processes and materials.
The final section was the Hall of the Future. This was designed by Basil Spence and was the climax of the exhibition, intended to give the visitor food for thought. Spence used an enormous suspended eye, with a beam of light shining from the centre of it, to symbolise the vision of design. This section also included a mural by John Hutton, who later worked with Spence at Coventry Cathedral, which evoked the future potential of design.
This text was written as one of the outputs of the Sir Basil Spence Archive Project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, 2005-08.
